Artist: Young BuckTitle: Straight Outta CashvilleRating: 4 StarsReviewed by: Javid Louis
Straight Outta Cashville (Interscope), G-Unit is back on the scene with the debut album from Young Buck. After the astronomical success of 50 Cent and the platinum, and growing, success of Lloyd Banks, many wondered how the first Southern release from the New York based crew would come across. With a mouth full of golds and a swagger that lets you know he’s straight from the bottom, Buck’s release answers all questions and more. With his first release Buck puts himself on a rare path only a few Southern rappers have walked (see Scarface and Too Short); being a “Southern Gangsta” whose beats can bang in Yonkers.
It may seem cliché, but the album opens up with G-Unit’s GM 50 Cent on “I’m a Soldier” during which Buck takes us through the South, showing its not all crunk and candy paint. The Dr. Dre produced track, is a hood symphony and has Buck introducing himself to the world, while simultaneously letting us know he’s willing to put it on the line to defend his general like a true soldier. “Let Me In”, the album’s first single, is a more club friendly record with a bounce and a heavy Southern sound thanks to the cow bells, which doesn’t stop Buck from keeping it in the gutter. Ill beats have become one of G-Unit’s staples, and the best example on Cashville is “Bang Bang”, which will sound very familiar to the Kill Bill fans. Using the well know sample from the Nancy Sinatra classic, Buck asks for forgiveness for killing his enemy before he gets him first, gangsta etiquette that would make Frank proud.
Not forgetting that G-Unit is “like the firm” the whole team is here, and on the Lloyd Banks featured “Prices on My Head” Buck steps his already lyrical rhyme game up to compete with the teams best one-liner. You can visualize Buck in the studio, shirt off, chain swinging, eyes red as he sternly but calmly delivers, “my arms is open to anybody who wants beef / I promise you I wont sleep till y’all laying six feet / G-Unit that’s what it is that’s what its gonna be / Benzino or the Source cant hold me.” Buck even shows G-Unit’s rawest member (when counting time actually free from behind bars) Yayo love on the hustler’s theme “Bonafide Hustler”. There’s more drug peddling and tales here than on Guy Brewer November 1st, and it’s all believable.
Young Buck may want to consider changing his teeth from gold to platinum to match the success of his album that is a definite must have for the collection. Although previous comparisons to Pac are immature, Buck is definitely delivers real stories from the street to the dirt roads. Not trying to sound too tough, or claiming to be the South’s biggest kingpin (see Lil Flip, TI, etc), or telling you how many pink Caddies he put on 22’s is what makes Buck so believable, and makes his message more real. It doesn’t hurt that Buck’s debut has nearly perfect production (Red Spyda, Midi Mafia, Sha Money XL, et. al.), which only compliments his rhymes and lets you know the future only holds more G’s for his Unit.