I’m not going to pretend that this album is anything other than the obvious: A collaboration between two California gangsta rappers with deep catalogs, both well known but also not considered top tier by most heads. But true West Coast gangsta rap is becoming a dying art, and hardcore, banging, dope-dealing street stories are what broke rap wide open–taking it across the country from the East Coast and then making inroads to midwestern suburbs.
I dig it. It’s part of my upbringing. It’s a genre that helped raise me in my late teens.
And within this genre, both YG and Mozzy are solid artists. Guys who know how to spin a story with darkness, violence, and enough humor to keep it from getting self-important.
This won’t change your life or convert you to the genre. And there’s definitely filler here. But when it hits, it hits in just the right spot. Good album.
Key tracks: Gangsta, Dangerous, Bompton to Oak Park.
