Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

Strength & Loyalty (Full Surface/Interscope)

May 30, 2007 at 4:00 am
Strength & Loyalty has some rough patches, but it's also an archetype for what rap needs right now: talented rappers who lost the spotlight, fast rap, rapping about fast rap, giant thumping Swizz Beatz tracks, stupid Swizz Beatz hooks, Akon hooks, a stupid/awesome interpolation of Fleetwood Mac's "Break the Chain," seriously good tracks about cars, will.i.am making painfully obvious samples sound awesome through great studio work, and a good guest verse from the Game. If we could get all those things on every rap album, we'd all be platinum. Fuck it, make it every album; you think My Chemical Romance can cover Tusk?