INTERSCOPE
The Ruff Ryders crew out of Yonkers, New York, has always boasted a slew of strong rappers -- DMX, Eve, The LOX, Jadakiss and Swizz Beats just to name the notables. Well, you can add the name of Styles to this list. Another Ruff Ryder delivers
"A Gangster and a Gentleman"
riveting album with
Styles gettin’ it down cold
Styles (Ruff Ryder/Interscope)
1/2
By Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comOn Styles' debut album, he makes much of being both "a gangster and a gentleman." It's about maintaining a balance between keeping the street knowledge needed to survive the 'hood ("letting niggas know you're real") while trying to stay humble and honorable in a world that usually demands you stay on the hardened, rather than right, side.
Styles' strength as a rapper is his hardcore honesty in depicting the thug life in all its morbid reality. There's no need to glorify it; whether you're abhorred or intrigued by the criminal street life of drugs and death, Styles just makes sure you get all the information he's scrabbled together in his scarred life.
Viewers of ESPN's professional sports lifestyle show "The Life" will recognize the album-closing track as the show's theme, albeit in an unexpurgated form. It's an all-out declaration of making "it through the pain and strife/it's my time/my world/my life," and we're not talkin' about some young, pampered millionaire athlete but a "rugged nigga" like Styles.
It's still about the Benjamins, making enough Dead Presidents to feed your family, albeit by being "a weed-smokin', gun-totin' heroin supplier," as the chorus line goes on "I'm A Ruff Ryder."
The album sustains a strong and able groove to the end. The title cut is a stark autobiographical song about growing up on the south side of Yonkers, getting beat up by his steppop and dealing vials of crack-cocaine as a teenager.
The album deftly spells out the yin and yang of 'hood life, with violent episodes interspersed with rare moments of uplifting hope. But there is also humor. "Daddy Get That Cash" and "Get Paid" (with its deadpan kids chorus of "Can I get paid/I'm just tryin' to make some cash) lighten the struggle, and the hilarious skit "Ass Bag" finds Styles and a bunch of his "D-Block niggas" riffing on variations of the protective airbag idea.
Solidarity and looking out for your crew is everything, and tracks like the raw and riveting "Lick Shots" (featuring Jadakiss, Sheek and J-Hood with a gatshot-punctuated Swizz Beats production), "Soul Clap" and the unapologetic "We Thugs (My Niggas)" drive home the point like the sharp end of a shank.
On the other side, there's the humanistic plea of "Black Magic" (with guest vocalist Angie Stone offering a welcome woman's counterpoint), "Listen" and "My Brother," a touching tribute to Styles' late brother, with an appropriate "St. Elsewhere" theme sample.
"I'm just a black man tryin' to get some money, goin' where I need to go" states Styles at one point on the album. Luckily, his lyrical and rhyming skills have led him to this forceful debut. If you end up "feeling" Styles, that's all he can ask for.
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