Murder Inc — Playin' for Keeps

Murder Inc. was a common name for a hip-hop group in the mid-1990s. It certainly was for a group that wanted to propose a gangsta style of its own genre. We are in New Orleans, Louisiana, inside there are Michael "Krazy" Wilson, years after a member of the 504 Boyz with TRU and Curren$y, among others, and who debuted as a soloist a few years later, Leon "Legend Man" Saulny, also with a debut studio album under his belt with a cover that imitates those of No Limit, Alamo and Linc "MC L" Vanderhorst, a guy who started spitting early, dropping several projects in the nineties.

Production is done by Cazel, Jazz, Legend Man, Roland & Goldfingers and Precise, along with David "D-Funk" Faulk who plays guitar (uncredited) on several tracks. Precise also takes care of the mixing together with Skip Burrows. Jazz and backing vocalists B' Shipe, Bio and Ed West are the guests. The group signs for the local label Hard Head Records and prepares to hit the market in the magic year of hip-hop, 1995. The product is a forty-minute New Orleans gangsta rap record that rides heavily on cheap synthesizers and inadequate production.

After a good start with the title track, the album travels just as it should, it's a gangsta g-funk record with some socio-conscious and political moments, the performers don't stand out and are overwhelmed by the synths, in some places excessive, which level the choices, the following tunes are simply average compared to the rest of the scene and nothing stands out. There are no catastrophic or exciting cuts, and if you take away the title track, skits and double, you realize that in these forty minutes there are few irons in the fire. The only noteworthy fact is that the boys of Pen & Pixel offer one of the most disturbing covers of the season. 

Published by Hard Head Records, dedicated to Hollygrove Records executive and later part of Hard Head Ephraim "Easy" Payne, who was killed at a very young age in 1994, the album is the first of two releases by the group who will take their own solo paths after the sophomore, following the killing of Roderick Smith, head of Hard Head who was killed young in 1996. 5/10.