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BOYZ N DA HOOD ALBUM REVIEW: BOYZ N DA HOOD

“Ladies and gentleman I’m about to introduce to you….Four of the realest ni&&as to come out da hood…The hardest group to come out the South…” - P-Diddy

Well P-Diddy is back to his enterprising ways again as he smartly signed 8 Ball & MJG and now he introduces us to another Bad Boy South group, BOYZ N DA HOOD whose self-titled album they hope will take street rap to new levels. BOYZ N DA HOOD actually call themselves the new N.W.A. of the South. Now as good as that sounds I’ll go on record and tell ya these guys aren’t even in the real N.W.A.’s zipcode, state OR country. About the ONLY comparison you can make between the West Coast N.W.A. and this supposed “southern” N.W.A. is that each member of BOYZ N DA HOOD is really a solo artist. See they started out as some of ATL’s premiere underground solo acts that one day joined forces to make a 15 song demo tape that would eventually fall into the lap of none other than Puff Daddy. But 2 of the members are set to drop solo albums real soon. Young Jeezy aka “The Snowman” will drop his solo album in about 2 weeks and Jody Breeze will be next up to bat later in the Summer. And I’m sure the other 2 members, Duke and Big Gee “Edgehanger”, will soon follow. I see problems forming with this plan of theirs though because each member will be promoting their own album instead of at first finishing the promotion of the group album. It’s gotta be the fastest a group has at first dropped a record together and then turned around and immediately dropped solo albums. Here’s a brief introduction on each member’s rap style: First you have Young Jeezy who is kind of the “hyper” sounding guy on tracks and arguably the most talented of the quartet. You have Big Gee who has the deep baritone rap tones. Then Jody Breeze is recognizable because he’s a tad bit more country than his fellow group members. Last but not least is Duke whose rap style is best described as “smooth” with less of an accent. However it’s still hard to distinguish these group members from one another except for Big Gee since his voice is so deep. But that’s what happens when 4 solo acts get together and collab. They just don’t have time to mesh with each other and find their roles within the group. Does this hurt the overall result of the album? Let’s see…

Anyone who has MTV JAMS knows the lead single “Dem Boyz” by now. It’s in SUPER heavy rotation right now and they even have a “chopped and screwed” version of the video as well. Pretty impressive exposure for a rookie rap act but when you’re signed to Bad Boy you can rest assured you’ll get marketed correctly. The song itself is probably the best song on the album as Nitti really hooks them up with a slow riding bass groove and the group contributes some of their best street lyrics. Surprisingly though this album stays pretty crunk the first 11 tracks. The album intro uses an old school sample from MC Eiht’s song “Duck Sick II” and rides out right through to the eerie “No Talkin”. Closest in quality to “Dem Boys” is the clever “Trap Ni&&az” in which the group plays off each other’s verses comparing hustling styles. My favorite line of the song is “It’s not about whose bread is the longest but who can stay out on these streets the longest..cause hey..One slip and ya outta here..WON’T BE BACK TILL THEM DAMN BUCK ROGERS YEARS..”. Brilliant! Then “Felonies”, “Look”, and “Don’t Put Your Handz On Me” round out the stand out songs in the Track 1-11 group. The latter song samples one of my all time favorite songs “Jail House Rap” by the Fat Boys. I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention “Gangstas” because it features Eazy E. Now not sure how they pulled this off but obviously Eazy E is similar to Tupac in that they still put out songs dead or alive.

Now really this album should have ended on Track 11 but instead the album continues on through Tracks 12-16. This quintet of songs are OK but none stand out at all. “Keep it N’ Da hood 2Nite” and “Happy Jamz” even seem to almost be an attempt at commercialism. Something the group says they despise. To their credit though they are embracing the street side of rap and pretty much keep it gangsta throughout the album which should give them a fighting chance in the retail world. Overall I would say this album falls solidly into the “solid” category since it’s well conceived for the most part and there are NO wack songs. The things holding this album back from being great is that the lyrics and concepts while sufficient are only average and the artists’ voices are sometimes undistinguishable due to the lack of chemistry between the four solo members. If they decide to stick together and come out with another collaborative effort after surviving their upcoming solo attempts they easily have the potential to make a great album that would then have people seriously considering them the N.W.A. of the South since they would interact amongst each other much better in the future and their styles more defined. For now that phrase “N.W.A. of the South” is nothing more than a marketing ploy. If you buy the album you won’t be mad but it’s just NOT on the level of a “must have” when you put this group along side the top artists in hiphop. And honestly artists have to do MORE than just make a “solid” album these days cause most of the public nowadays downloads everything for free. So this group has more work to do but certainly has given me more solid hiphop to throw into my CD rotation.

Benz0
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