guests: tupac, seal, hellraza, t-low, big syke, kamikaze, others.

If you happen to be friends with one of hip hop's most popular artists, then life most hold grapes and honey in store for you. But then tragedy strikes, your friend, brother, associate dies, and while not as tragic, still misfortunate enough, before that he was able to tell the world that you are down with him, and you are worthy to be checked out. Hence you disappear, never to be heard of again. So the plot goes. But the Outlawz were not read to go out like that. And their chance to make clear that they were more than Tupac's weed carriers came with the "Still I Rise" album. Then again that chance wasn't used to the best results, as the album was mainly consisting of too old tracks, what then resulted in a lackluster release. But the name was out, and the attention of the audience was captured. And with their new album, it will be interested to find out, what these cats are able to do, without their mentor. And considering that we weren't too tempted to check this out, due to weakness of the other album, we are glad, if not even surprised, to find that this album is doing enough right. There's plenty of tracks on here, that are properly working, and are straying away from all the wackness it could have catered too.

First of all, the Outlawz are not Tupac. That's a given. And that also means that they are not spitting poetry that was written with the same eloquence, and at times tenderness. Hence you do often enough get weak rhyming patterns. But what just as often makes this valid is the effort it makes, to give us something that goes beyond the unnecessary ignorant. Like "2nd Hand Smoke", that is talking about different kinds of smoke that are messing up lives, or as Young Noble says "we the second hand smoke of a fiend generation / swear we will, but they know we won't make it". More stereotypical is "Loyalty", where that is explored with Edi declaring: "I stay true to what I know and that's Outlaw / it ain't no me in this muthafucka without y'all / we went from nothing to something / hustling and bubbling / and ain't ask niggaz for nothing / shit that made other cliques split / made us tighter".

"Our Life" is also keeping things away from the ignorant, as this is reflecting on blessings and tragedies, with Napoleon talking about the latter: "one love to my Mexicans / trying to run across the border / to see freedom all over again / man, one love to my Africans / they try to kill us with AIDS". However, there's also the tracks, where the Outlawz want to set it straight, that they are no wuzzes, like "Rize" (feat. Big Syke)", "Die If U Wanna", "Y'all Can't Do", or "So Many Stories" (feat. Kaillion aka Hellraza), with the last one actually reflecting on all the street moves too, Napoleon asking: "and I don't know why that nigga jealous of me / when he could do the same shit that pay me". And obviously there's also a collabo track with Tupac on here, as we are getting a remix of "World Wide", that is featuring T-Low of Next singing the hook.

Now on the beat tip we are also getting some pleasant surprises. The album will obviously sound better if you are in Cali state of mind, but some of the cuts do have a universal appeal. Hence "Rize", "Thiz Iz The Life", "Y'all Can't Do" come hard, while "Our Life" is very smooth, and probably replaying an unaccredited Tom Petty 'falling' guitar. You can get your groove on to "World Wide (Remix)", while the best track has to be "History" produced by Reefologist, as he's pulling off a musical cut, that features real live instruments, and Seal singing the hook, making this one dope track. There's however the alienating beats on here too, like the confusing "Red Bull & Vodka" and "Box Spring Boogie" produced by Quimmy Quim, or the bare "Loyalty".

Now there has a lot of praise been said about this record. And it deserves it too. But at the same time it's necessary to put that into perspective: the lyrics are often enough too simple, if not to say weak. And some of the beats are leaving us rather indifferent. The record will also not convince the loyal east coast fans, or the die hard backpacker. That doesn't take away anything from it though, as this album will be dope to those to who it is catered to.