Mack 10 first established himself as a prominent West Coast rapper. He claimed fame as a member of the group Westside Connection. He then formed his own record label, Hoo-Bangin Records and signed a crew of rappers. He released then released his first album under his own label in October of 1998. A good album that featured a first for Mack 10: he found himself in the power position as producer of several of his own tracks. These tracks were not disappointing, but were not extremely amazing, good nonetheless. I’m building him up, so that you can see the reasons why I respect him as a rapper. Unfortunately this mix tape broke a few rungs on my respect ladder.

This mix tape has so much potential if it were just a compilation. What do I mean, you ask? You see, with a mix tape, every song flows into one another. Therein, lies NOT the problem. The problem is the scratching and mixing within the songs themselves. The mixer, Julio G, takes words from songs and repeats them over and over, trying to create the effect of a ‘mix tape’. This ruins the album, because it takes away from each song. The skill level of the mixing is minus sub par, in fact it stinks. However, had Mack 10 made a compilation of the tracks on this album, it would have been so much better. By compilation, I mean that no mixing or scratching would have been done to the songs.

The song selection itself is amazing. Mack 10 hand picked some of the best songs from his own label’s artist, including CJ Mac’s “King Of LA”, and “Hate”, MC Eiht’s “Me & My Bitch”, and The Comrads’ “Just Don’t Stop”. Even better are Westside Connection’s “Bow Down”, Mack 10’s “Backyard Boogie”, “Hoo-Bangin”, and “Westside Slaughterhouse”.

This album has a definite westside feel to it. If you’re a die-hard westcoast gangsta rap fan then you may want to pick this album up. It does feature some great songs, and provides good exposure of some ‘Hoo-Bangin records’ artists. But if you have the opportunity to get the ‘real’, non-mixed versions of these songs, then please do. This album had so much potential, but the bottom fell out. Mack 10 should definitely give up the mix tape business and go back to doing what he does best: rapping.

www.brockwayent.com

(Originally posted on HipHopCanada.com)

This review was written October 27, 1999