Debut album by the hip-hop duo from Long Beach, California, Tha Mexakinz formed by Rodrigo "Sinful" Navarro and Rudy "I-Man" Archuleta. In 1993 the boys got a contract with Motown Records through its sublabel Mad Sounds, becoming the first Latin artists to sign with Motown. The production is done by Sinful, Mo, Bird and QD-III. The album doesn't credit guests, Mr. Nice Guy, Scrap Dog and Chili & Bean recite a couple of skits.
Neither the rapping nor the choices behind the keyboards stand out from the rest of the scene, excluding the fact that this is one of the first albums in hip-hop to mix rhymes in English and rhymes in Spanish, combining them in Spanglish and influencing subsequent artists. The music offered by the beatmakers is radically based on the West Coast, with influences from mobb music, g-funk, Cypress Hill, samples from Crusaders, Ramsey Lewis, Michael Franks and tributes to various rappers. Nothing really sounds good or stands out from the rest of the scene, due to an average rap style, poor and too simple hooks.
Consisting of fifteen tracks for a total of one hour of material, the album is promoted by Motown with two singles ("Phonkie Melodia", which gets a good commercial response and of which the album also features a remix, and "Extaseason"), but doesn't break into the charts. Although the project fails to stay in the minds of the mainstream audience, the boys obtain a crossover appeal and manage to carve out a niche of fans between hip-hop and alternative rock. The convincing response of the underground audience convinces the duo to return to the shelves a couple of years later with a sophomore that doesn't get particular feedback and coincides with the group's last studio work. 5/10.
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