The hip-hop duo Convicts, formed by Big Mike and Mr. 3-2, disbanded around the early nineties: in the following years, Big Mike joins the Geto Boys before pursuing a solo career, while Mr. 3-2 forms another group, the Blac Monks. The group was originally formed together with D.A. and AWOL, later Raheem (sometimes credited as a guest; he's one of the founders of the Geto Boys and one of the first Houston rappers to release an LP in the late 1980s) and Storm also joined. The group gets a contract with Rap-A-Lot, which places its producers to make the rhythms for the record: John Bido, Reddy Redd, Pedewestra and the Blac Monks are credited behind the keyboards. The guests of the album are Big Low, Phaetra Raney, 5th Ward Juvenilez, Goldie Don, Ophtrac and Makesha.
The intro features a sad curious sample, then comes a relentless downtempo drum to support the slow and decent delivery of performers. A generic piece follows, with a funky rhythm and a slow and hard drum, sample from "Johnny Was" by Bob Marley and The Wailers. From the third track, the tape begins to take on flavor: funky rhythm, slow syncopated skinny drum, good dark samples from Roy Ayers' "Slow Motion", vibrant and prominent bass line in order to support the group's delivery in hardcore and syncopated rapping, with Big Low as host of the song.
"Death Before Dishonor" is a six-minute choice: funky boom bap, slow lacerating drum machine, good samples, there's an interpolation of Sting's "Mad About You", g-funk synths, slow syncopated hardcore rapping by the performers. The title track is an honest cut, but the funky boom bap rhythm is slow and ballad-like, with a slow, relaxed, effortless delivery from rappers. There are two layered samples from Johnnie Taylor's "Ain't That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One)" and The Temptations' "Mother Nature".
Below is a less good, still funky, five-minute piece that precedes "Buddah Nature": boom bap funky, honest drum, good samples, confident smooth delivery of guys, female Phaetra Raney hook, relaxed vibes. Then come the last two verses and send this straight track between the highlights of the edition: the first one is interpreted by Quiet Storm, the second one by another girl I cannot identify, but in any case, they offer fantastic delivery superior to previous rappers, performing incredibly aggressive, confident, fluid, hardcore, dope flow of both of these MCs that kill the rhythm.
The 5th Ward Juvenilez are the guests of the eighth choice: skinny and pounding drum machine, honest sample from Funkadelic's "Get Off Your Ass and Jam", slow smooth syncopated delivery of a girl, maybe it's Quiet Storm again, the others are decent enough. "Doin It Jungle Style" has a fresh and lively funky boom bap, with cheerful chorus, slow drum, decent samples and a youthful and cheerful delivery from the performers.
It's a pretty competent record with nine cuts and forty minutes of listening: the group instead lengthens the LP with other five songs and twenty minutes of listening, inflating it and making it more irregular than it should have been. The quality drops immediately: track number ten has a minimal and lean drum machine, slow rhythm close to ragga, quite mediocre. The next two tunes feature g-funk synths, attempting to mimic the West Coast scene but with cheap and annoying synths, the rappers' light-hearted cheery delivery lifts the songs up to decency, but not that much beyond.
The latter boasts the presence of Goldie Don along with 5th Ward Juvenilez. "Outro" is the penultimate cut: slow rhythm, lean downtempo drum, good bass line, relaxed mobb vibes, background singing of Makesha. Finally, "1995": sample from "The Exorcist"? I don't know, but it sounds excellent, beautiful final choice. A few lines in the background, then a few rapping bars supported by a hard and incisive drum, pounding, before a shot stops the delivery of the MC.
Released by Rap-A-Lot, the album sells a good number of copies and hits the hip-hop record chart. Composed of 14 tracks for a total of one hour of listening, the horrible cover doesn't reflect the goodness of the project: is a discreet southern record, dealing with generic gangsta themes with tight rapping and dark production, often leaning on the West Coast, a bit irregular, but with some interesting traits. Among the performers, Quiet Storm appears as the finest along with 3-2, the others don't have as much personality and don't stand out too much. Recommended for southern fans, it's certainly better than many other Rap-A-Lot projects released around the same time.
Rating: 6.3/10.
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