Debut album by Anthony Banks, Oakland rapper, known at the time as one of the fittest producers in the Bay Area.
Here, he combines a West Coast musical carpet, with boom bap rhythms and relaxed funky samples, with a West Coast lyricism, with girls, weed and braggadocio as the main topics. Ant Banks delivers with a laid-back style that is calm and fit on his own beats, presenting pretty good rapping. The album is coherent, solid, destined to have its own place among the best projects of the year, supported by a stable drum machine and good samples, however it's plagued by questionable commercial choices: the inclusion of two consecutive ballads is incomprehensible, "U Just a Punk" has a hip house rhythm, while "Livin' the Life" is mixed with decent synths. Plus, there are tracks with wacky background sounds, badly thought out lame hooks, and the product is unnecessarily stretched towards listening time from the eleven minutes of the final cut, with thanks then a long instrumental section. Well the guests, Mhisani, Spice 1, MC Pooh and Too Short, who keep the second part of the record high. Recommended for Bay Area fans, most of the time the product is good. 6/10.
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