Search - Crooked I :: Hood Star

FINALLY Say Hi To The Untouchable Bad Guy

D.P. | California | 06/22/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It's no big secret that after the death of 2pac, Suge Knight going to jail, and the rest of the headline artist left the label...the golden era of Death Row Records was over. Various attempts at a comeback were made with one artist being the new star artist of the label who people have heard on various songs before before (Snoop Dogg's "Feel So Good" off the Ride SDTK & "Step Up" from Kurupt's "Streetz Is A Mutha") by either featuring him on their albums of former artist (2pac's "Nu-Mixx Klassiks" & Tha Dogg Pound's "2002"), having guest appearences on songs from associates such as Murder Inc. (Ja Rule's "Last Temptation", Irv Gotti Presents Tha Inc., and Ashanti's remix of "Baby"), and being the top showcased artist on their own complimation albums (Too Gangsta For Radio) & soundtracks (DysFUNKtional Family) while releasing a mixtape as well (Westcoasanostra) & even making an appearence with Suge himself on Jimmy Kimmel's talk show. However as usual on Death Row, his albums ("Untouchable" & "Say Hi To The Bad Guy") never saw the light of day & he left the label. While he's gone on to gain more underground popularity by releasing a DVD along with various & mixtapes & EP's, making guest appearences, a weekly freestyle series, and even a group album under the name Slaughterhouse with Royce Da 5'9 & others...WideAwake Ent. are the new owners of Death Row & are finally "officially" releasing the material (to much controversy) from Crooked I.



This album contains 15 songs from Crooked I's time on Death Row Records with production from their top in-house producers in Big Hutch & Darren Vegas. There were various guest appearences on the album from then-Death Row artist such as Kurupt (West Coast), Eastwood (Lil Youngsters, West Coast, House Party, B*tch, Me & Dogg), Virginia Slim (Go Hard), Spider (Lil Youngsters & Go Hard) along with other guest appearences from Ray J (House Party, Lil Youngsters, B*tch), Juvenile & Sisqo from Dru Hill (So Damn Hood Remix), Too Short (B*tch) and K-Ci from Jodeci (Me & My Dogg). While my favorite tracks on here were "So Crooked", "West Coast", "House Party", and "Cali Love III"...I was really disappointed in with the collaboration tracks "B*tch" & "Me & My Dogg" while songs like "F' Em", "Haters", and "Live At The Row" came off more like freestyle sessions.



The only song on here that was released by the label itself in the past was "So Damn Good" since Death Row actually did release that song to radio as a single eventhough it didn't get many spins & the remix on here with Juvenile adding a verse getting even less attention. As I stated earlier, this album is very controversal in the fact that Crooked I himself doesn't support this project to the point where he told the fans to bootleg it while the producers of Darren Vegas & Cold 187um/Big Hutch support the project. It should be noted that eventhough this is the first "official" release of Crooked I's material from Death Row, these songs have been featured on various bootlegs of his "Say Hi To The Bad Guy" album throughout the internet.



In the end, I have to be honest in that this album was just average at best as it had it's even mix of songs with replay value & songs that I just didn't care for while or disappointed with the rest were just average to good but none of them really stood out to me & aren't something I would have in heavy rotation. So if your a big Crooked I fan then I would recommend but otherwise this is one release that I would skip or at listen to online then make your own judgement.



Side Note: There is a bonus track on the iTunes download called "Ghetto Love.""

Old out of date records but dope!!

Jason Cleveland | 06/26/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"So this is material recorded on Crooked I's time at Death Row records and I guess the new owners put it together and released it. While it is outdated material and Crooked I's skills have developed to be much better this is still a great collection of his music and I bump it."