Second studio album by San Francisco hip-hop group RBL Posse. Rhythms and rap are mainly provided by the group, helped behind the keyboards by The Enhancer and Cellski, the only guest accredited to rapping.
The guys decide not to completely bite into the g-funk cake, but they taste a slice to understand what it's all about. Like 90% of the other West Coast artists, they steal synthesizers, without really understanding why: this tape is no different from the debut, they've the same rhythms, the same lyrics and the same energy as two years ago, with some economic extra g-funk synths. The production is funky hard without effort, very generic: the drum machine is often poor and hammers in the background, there are weak and mediocre samples, decent at best, and a few other elements that allow us to distinguish this work from the rest released during the season.
The synths are everywhere, sometimes deep and annoying, they're always there, and I mean that in the first nine songs they're excluded only in "M.N.O.H.P.", coincidentally one of the best cuts because the host Cellski puts a little energy to spit his bars on a midtempo drum. The same guy does well in the opening choice, nevertheless, for the rest of the record, RBL Posse is only supported by a few background vocalists from time to time, and struggle to carry on the tracks, delivering lyrics with a lazy, listless, slow style.
Released by their label Fogtown Records and Oakland's In-A-Minute, the album miraculously entered the Billboard 200 and reached the top 25 in the rap chart. It's a generic gangsta record composed of 15 long songs (half on 5 minutes and over) for a total of over an hour of listening: hard funky beats with g-funk synths and poor, lazy rap, not an essential listen, two thirds of these songs are average. The cover is interesting, cold and dark, clearly East Coast.
Rating: 6/10.
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