Honestly, I thought it was a mediocre typical sophomore jinx published by one of the forgotten members of the Juice Crew. Instead, "Born to Be Wild" ends up being quite decent, a good effort by Shan who doesn't stray too far from the good debut.
The choice of not performing any hooks during the whole album deserves to be appreciated, leaving the task to the samples chosen by Marley Marl and to the scratches of the producer. Here, the delivery of MC Shan is still fresh and simple, pretty smooth and clean, aided by a good production based on hard beats, with a drum machine that does its job well, often skeletal and simple in background in order to return a funky sound to combine with jazzy elements. The only variation of the disc worthy of note is the ballad "She's Gone", minimal beat with skeletal and simple drum machine in background, delivery sung by Shan with choir sung on the simple hook, it's an exhausting song.
Among the finest choices, "I Pioneered This" boasts a good skeletal and heavy drum machine, funky rhythm with flashes of cornet looped in background, good Shan delivery, regular and clean. There's a sample from Rufus Thomas' "The Breakdown (Part I)". "Go for Yours" has a good boom bap, tight, frantic piano in background, skeletal and minimal drum machine, a bit heavy, and decent rhythm, good fresh delivery by Shan; there's a disturbing bridge on the hook left to a sample. The joint mixes samples from The Beginning of the End's "Funky Nassau Pt. II", Les McCann's "The Harlem Buck Dance Strut" and James Brown's "The Payback". Then the title track presents a honest boom bap, simple production, frantic and minimal drum machine, good fresh rapping by the emcee, sample from Melvin Bliss' "Synthetic Substitution".
Published by Cold Chillin' with Warner Bros. distribution, the record shows MC Shan's b-boy persona, has another dissing track to Boogie Down Productions ("Juice Crew Law"), obtaining a discreet response from the critics, peaking top 50 among rnb efforts. 6.7/10.
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