You’ll be happy with the snazzy piano backdrop of “How I Love You,” the spooky “3-5-4 (Tarrentino),” the Temptations laced “Don’t Mean Nuthin'” and of course the hardcore bounce of the first single “Mighty D-Block (2 Guns Up)” featuring all of The LOX along with J Hood. Devine (Ruff Ryders), Vinny Idol & Supa Mario and Liveson hold it down decently. The only big name on a track is Alchemist on “Turn it Up,” but Mr. Beats are not really the problem here at all. Punched in the face, kicked in the groin, and entire body folded up like a pretzel. If you’re not a fan of wrestling just picture two hardcore monsters beating up on a guy barely a hundred pounds soaking wet, and there’s your analogy. Since Russell Simmons and Vince McMahon are all the rage these days trying to “Smackdown the Vote,” I’m going to shamelessly up the ante on wrestling references here: the beats are like Cactus Jack and Terry Funk, and the rhymes are like Spike Dudley. Sure they make cameo appearances for the save, such as Styles appearing on “In/Out (S.P.)” and ‘Kiss appearing on “Ten Hut” but by and large Sheek Louch is holding these tracks down on his own, and that’s a problem. Et cetera.Īs a soloist though, Sheek has the same problem the other two members of The LOX had – nobody to tag in. While Styles talks shit and Jada drops punchlines, Sheek’s plain spoken delivery and verbiage offset both nicely and allowed for smooth three-man tag team transitions from rapper to rapper. Sheek was the glue that bound the group together.
Believe it or not, that was the perfect role for him in The LOX. That’s right, Sheek is the rapper who as a soloist reminds you of your least favorite teacher in high school – the one with no charisma and no enthusiasm whose voice practically begged you to fall asleep in class. Jadakiss is the funny one, Styles P is the smooth talking one, and Sheek Louch is, well… um, he’s… the one with no personality? If you didn’t read the prior reviews or even glance through them, let me recap – I like these guys collectively as a group, but individually they seem flawed and incapable of holding down an entire solo. In fact I would gladly have passed off the buck on this album, but each time one comes out is flooded with requests for coverage and your humble editor-in-chief ends up being the only one willing to cop the CD. To the collective fans of The LOX, I apologize for these words in advance – that would have been fine with me. Sit behind the desk you know, watch a lil’ cable” ‘Your shit hot, you could bring the muh’fuckin streets back’ ‘Til I dropped a freestyle in the studio with some of my mans No need to speak but the promotion was weak
Styles P dropped ‘Gangster and a Gentleman’ – hard I’m lovin his shit but the hood thought it was moist
“Jadakiss dropped a solo, they lovin his voice It only seems natural that Sheek Louch would release one in 2003, but if you believe his words on “I Ain’t Forget” it almost didn’t happen: Jadakiss had “Kiss Tha Game Goodbye” in 2001, and Styles P had “A Gangster and a Gentleman” in 2002. With each passing year, it seems another rapper from The LOX releases a solo album.
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