After the mid-nineties, when the hip-hop pole moves back to the Atlantic coast, the Golden State's top g-funk artists begin to fall. Snoop, MC Eiht, WC, all the NWA, Spice 1, Paris, Warren G, Kurupt, Above the Law, Dre Dog, Mac Mall, and so on. DJ Quik was one of the very few to remain relevant on the West Coast by continuing to release quality material throughout the 1990s. Dr. Dre made one of the best comeback albums of the decade, after having experienced a troubled period following the release of his solo debut. One of the few not to fall, is a guy who toured the country on Dr. Dre's 1993 tour of "The Chronic", Lil 1/2 Dead. This 20-year-old boy releases his second studio album.
Quite unusual for the period, the rapper remains glued to the g-funk formula and even manages to improve on his debut two years earlier. His rapping is honest, calm, fluent and his lyrics revolve around the simple themes of the gangsta genre, crime, fun, drugs, violence, weapons, women. He's practically not saying anything, but he's doing it well with unnamed guests, including Tha Chill of CMW. The production, credited to Courtney "The Commander" Branch, Tracy Kendrick, Kenneth "K-Phlx" Manning and Damon "Twin" Rose, is the driving force behind the album: unexpectedly, hidden here are some of the best g-funk beats of the season. The drum machine is tough, dry and hard, impassive, there are bass lines in the background, samples well-chosen and an extensive use of accessible synths, sometimes distorted to give that "wah-wah" sound, making the musical carpet as fluid as possible.
Composed of ten long tracks, no one drops below four minutes, for a total of three quarters of an hour of listening, the album is published by Priority, not getting popular among the public and critics. A real shame, as it's an improvement on his previous effort and is one of the best West Coast albums of the year. 8/10.
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