Slaughterhouse — On the House [mixtape]

This is one of the mixtapes by hip-hop group Slaughterhouse.

"Who I Am" has the blessing-one-way-ticket-to-Heaven rhythm that Ski Beats wisely packaged for Jay-Z's divine flow in "Dead Presidents", from his masterpiece album "Reasonable Doubt". He has that piano, heavenly. And what are these guys doing? They place a scandalous drum on it that messes up more than World War II and messes with everything else, from sampling to rapping. It makes no sense. Why? What is this thing?

This thing is a mixtape that anticipates the new Slaughterhouse album and is called "On the House": finally, the guys give a title to one of their works, on the third attempt. Probably, the insiders would have expected "Slaughterhouse" again for this mixtape as well. Hosted by DJ Drama, the tape features 13 tracks for a total of 73 minutes, and is the first released with Shady. The production is made by StreetRunner, Sarom (who is the guy that ruins the beat of Ski Beats in "Who I Am"), Salaam Remi, Mr. Porter, JUSTICE League, Alchemist, AraabMuzik, Hit-Boy, The Klasix, Jai Dave, Pitchshifters and No ID. I don't know who these guys are and I have no intention of knowing, especially after hearing the beats they have placed here.

Royce da 5'9", Crooked I and Joell Ortiz are committed to rap and they all do a good job here. There's budden too. The rappers cut him out twice ("Back the Fuck Up", "Sucka MC's"), for the rest, he's in the record. The title track is a duet with Crooked and Ortiz, "Where Sinners Dwell" is a duet with Royce and Crooked, while "All on Me" doesn't feature the Detroit rapper among the performers. Between quality and playing time, the mixtape is annoyingly irregular and inconsistent, alternating pieces between two minutes and eight minutes, closing with the discreet "Truth or Truth, Pt. 1" which goes on for a quarter of an hour believing to be the new "Rapper's Delight", but ending up being exclusively a footnote in the history of the group.

The guests are Freeway, K. Young and SLV. Rappers spit hardcore bars on tracks by Nas, Jay-Z, Biggie Small, Lloyd Banks, 50 Cent, Eminem, and twice on Rick Ross songs, some of the best artists ever on the scene (plus tracks from Nicki Minaj and Kanye West), nonetheless, the production messes everything up. The sound chosen for this mixtape is poor all the time, too hard, too difficult, the concept of mixing doesn't seem to exist in this effort: the beat is over the rap, over all, incredibly annoying, you can't deal with it. Never recommended, skip it. 3.5/10.