Local musicians need more time before exposing cover

By Wes Woods, On-Line Forty-Niner

Monday, November 9, 1998

"Long Beach's Undercover Vol. 1," a compilation disc featuring numerous local rappers, at the very least, attempts and claims to be original.

ALBUM REVIEW

Despite the attempts, the music, produced primarily by DJ Bax, ends up overshadowing the efforts. The backdrops are generally well-produced, with lush and laid-back instrumentals and gentle yet catchy drums varying in tempo.

There are definitely better productions such as the bouncy stylish sound of "Situations." Then there are others such as the boring, scratch heavy "Scandelist Diggas."

Some of the rhythm and blues singers, who contribute to the production, also end up ruining the songs with their pathetic contributions.

All of the rappers who represent Long Beach, Pomona or San Pedro, except for Lemonade who is from Western Nevada, need to spend more time with their pen and pad. Thus, Lemonade, Dano, Hitman and DJ Bax's silky smooth and generally polished voices are held back by their lack of lyrical firepower.

"Keep it Phat," with its mellow, slow-rolling backdrop of shuffling drums and keyboards features Lemonade, whose heavily clinched lyrics "I'm known for droppin' bombs, but I ain't from no militia," do not match the stellar production.

"Check The Freestyle," with a flute intermingling on various parts of the tedious drums, fails on all accounts. With the constant references to nudity: "Your style is naked like nudity," and "sacrifice an mc, torture 'em by showing 'em naked pictures of an old lady," the song just falls apart.

Another cut, "Bustin' Up The Party," with its juicy repetitive loop from "To All My Niggaz and Bitches" from Snoop Doggy Dogg's "Doggystyle" is a winner, until the rhymes start flowing.

Hitman's lackluster line of "I'll have your ass screaming who-haa, like Busta Rhymes..." starts the tragedy and DJ Bax ends it with his poor, neurotic rhyming style.

DJ Bax, Hitman and Abraham are evidently in a group entitled "In God We Trust," which is indicated by a picture inside the album. However, they never inform the listener of this. Similarly, Lemonade, K-9 III, Dano, Tonya, Juice and Tony, despite the voice variances, hardly bother to tell who they are either.

While Long Beach Undercover does try to inject some much needed originality into the world of hip-hop, it sadly ends up failing with bad pop-culture references and punchlines.