Eric "RBX" Collins is a Long Beach rapper who is part of Snoop Dogg's circle and participates in both "The Chronic" (1992) and "Doggystyle" (1993), having previously signed with Death Row Records: the hype sparked by the debuts of Dr. Dre and Snoop leads him to be considered one of the future rising stars of the West Coast scene, but he never gets there.
Cousin of Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg and Daz Dillinger, RBX, acronym for Reality Born Unknown, is too smart to get caught by Death Row and makes different decisions than his friends: he prepares to have his debut in the game through the label, however, he's hampered by Dr. Dre and Suge Knight preventing him from releasing the material. In order to publish his own debut, the rapper manages to move to Premeditated Records, a hip-hop subsidiary of Warner Bros.
The production is entirely made by Greg Royal and RBX completely renounces the MCs with which he previously collaborated, bringing in his album unknown artists such as D' Cipher, E'D' Ameng, Meticulous Mad 1 and Ganjah K. The music chosen by Greg Royal aims to heavily imitate Dre's g-funk sound, to which RBX dedicates the dissing "A.W.O.L.", the only single of the CD and the first cut after two intros: the beats are very cheap, with meager drums, random, weak, annoying g-funk synths and easy funk, soul and rnb samples.
The rapper deals with different topics ranging from Afrocentrism to thug lyrics, to socio-conscious verses, performing his bars with a rough flow and also releasing ragga / dancehall songs. An excessive number of skits sinks the disc and unnecessarily stretches it up to 21 tracks and 68 minutes. Warner Bros. guarantees him (and guaranteed itself) an economic return by bringing the LP into the charts (top 15 among rap records), but it's not an essential listening, unless you're curious about what the rappers who appeared on those first iconic g-funk albums can do as soloists.
Rating: 5/10.
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