------------When this cd was released I had never heard of J-Loc before. Being released on Hoe Dog Records (Duke’s label), I wasn’t sure what I was going to get. All I knew was that J-Loc was the newest member to Darkroom and that is probably his first cd. So going into this cd I had no clue what to get and I came out very surprised.
___Right off the bat, this cd starts off good as J-Loc, Duke, and Crooked are all on “Cali Drama”. Good beat and lyrics make this a nice first song for the cd. Things kind of slow down until song five “Money, Power & Bitches” which also features Duke. As the title suggests this song is about money,power, and bitches and both J-Loc and Duke give a good performance. Next is “Cross Me Up” which is the best solo song on the cd. J-Loc comes with a tight beat and some sick lyrics on this one. Right after is “Smile Now, Cry Never” featuring Sir Dyno. This is another really good track with both J-Loc and Dyno flowing very nicely. After that the next really good song isn’t until track eleven “I Hate The World Cause You’re In It” featuring none other than Crooked. Crooked has a really tight verse in which he disses ex-Darkroom member Eclipse pretty bad. It’s actually really funny to hear what he has to say about him.
___This is a good debut cd from J-Loc. Considering I had never heard anything from him before I got this cd. I was really impressed on how he handled himself. There are no bad songs on this cd. But also there is no stand out songs either. This is good and bad as you can listen to this cd without skipping any songs but there is no one song that you will want to listen to over and over. Also, on some songs, its hard to understand what J-Loc is saying since the music is louder than the vocals. After a while you get used to it but I still think that should have been fixed before the cd came out. J-Loc produced this whole cd making all the beats on the cd. I also think he has a really good flow and that his lyrics aren’t so bad, considering this is his first cd. With time, J-Loc should be able to make some really tight cds, but right now he made a good debut cd. The only thing that holds this back is no super tight songs. The future looks very bright for him.
Rating: 7.2/10
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bruce Wayne
