Debut studio album for Len "G'' Len" Smallwood, rapper from Los Angeles, California. Many years earlier, in 1989, he releases "Rock N' Soul", a song as part of a hip-hop group formed together with his mother Vivian Smallwood aka Rappin Granny. She later got a contract with Tandem Records to record a response song to The Fresh Prince in 1992, and in the following years she participated in several successful television series, especially comedy, as well as the 1996 cult movie "Don't Be a Menace" by the Wayans brothers. In the mid-nineties, G'' Len signed with Family Records and records his debut, totally self-produced with guests such as Be Brazy aka B-Brazy, June Dawg, Mr. Dulo and Rappin Granny.
This album of just over an hour, eighteen tracks and six skits, searches for the sound and themes that were Dr. Dre and Above the Law in their prime. The music focuses heavily on the g-funk sound with stretched and not very melodic synthesizers, flat bass, dry and thin drums, sometimes the rhythm works and could go on for eight minutes, other times it starts to annoy after a few moments. Over this erratic soundscape, G'' Len delivers bars around gangsta themes, building a solid project. Highlights include “Woopin” and “Neighborhood Watch,” where Len is joined by Rappin Granny. In the last minutes of the LP Rodney Taylor's sax arrives to support G'' Len's rapping, allowing the record to get more highlights with “For the Money” and “Street Life”.
Despite an acceptable quality of material, the album doesn't have enough oomph to stand out among the sea of releases released in 1995. Final side note, the simple cover: above the figure of the author on a red background, below is a cracked red brick structure, in front of the bricks the album title in white, and below the author's name in yellow on a black band. We're in Los Angeles, so all the red color should tell you that we're listening to a rap album by a member of the Bloods gang: G'' Len is actually also part of the hip-hop group Bloods, although he doesn't participate in the group's records.
Recommended for g-funk fans, forgettable for casual listeners. 7/10.
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