If Young Jeezy’s The Recession last year was a mad decent example of a rapper expressing doubt in a time of global uncertainty, Krayzie Bone’s The Fix Vol. 2 is a rapper who is just depressed as hell. Not even about the recession. He’s just depressed. Look at that album art. It’s altogether possible that hip hop has always sounded like this when bemoaning the plight of the ghetto. But young rappers follow the Kanye West model, and old rappers have been removed from the hood too long to give a damn. I won’t lament the diversification of hip hop, but the genre has progressed so far from its origins. 14 years after Eazy died and the NWA era officially met its end, everything is still terrible.

The danger that you approach with sticking close to a genre’s roots is sounding stale. And occasionally, that does plague Just One Mo’ Hit. Not that it’s a huge problem, as Krayzie is blessedly restrained, keeping the record to 12 tracks of average length and zero skits. But the first half of the album is somewhat hit and miss – in “Reasons to Hate Me,” Krayzie describes himself as “a suicide bomber full of drama” – ick – and revels a little too much in the bland “America’s Most Hated” title that every even remotely edgy rapper has reveled in in the last two decades. Frankly, I don’t know anyone who cares enough about Krayzie Bone to hate him, and I’m sure whoever does hate him is just a petty asshole. “I Strive (I’m a Hustla)” is more evidence toward instituting a policy of deleting every track with “Hustla” in the title whenever I get to it.

In case you had any delusions about the album title, Krayzie makes it painfully clear on the title track. “Just One Mo’ Hit” doesn’t refer to a stoner who wants to keep the party going, but rather equating his lyrical prowess to the addictiveness of harder drugs: “Oh please oh please oh please / Just gimme just one mo’ hit.” And then he shows off with the flow that won him a Grammy for his spot on Ridin’.

Halfway through the record, we begin the descent into the abyss that is Krayzie Bone’s soul. “Po Folk Holiday” is making the best of a bad situation, sure, but “All in Time,” which begins with a sample of Bush warning of Weapons of Mass Destruction – so 2003 – laments that it’s the end times, that the world is about to end and the “better days” promised to the hood for so long never came. It’s the opposite of “My President.” “Make Some Money, Money,” which is so laid back it sounds more like an interlude extended to song length, is what I’m relatively sure is a sarcastic/satirical take on wealth-focused rappers. It’s actually pretty funny – “I can’t understand why so many people out here po’ / when money made out of paper.” The first half of the song, he’s almost perplexed at how many people are willing to kill for money, when you can’t take it to the grave, and the second half of the song is like a bizarre parody of the selfishness of rap. If every rapper just gave into his id completely, this would be it – Krayzie Bone saying “money, money, money” hundreds of times.

Which is, of course, succeeded by a five minute slow jam that’s basically the same thing. Which is cool, because I think it’s just someone’s excuse to show off their production skills. Krayzie Bone is barely present.

Then comes the real soul-crushing part of the album. “Let Me Go, Let Me Fly,” an extended missive against his record label about how music doesn’t make him feel better anymore. “Life! A Lesson to Learn” is downright Buddhist, and “It Won’t Be Long” is the OneRepublic-sampling reflection on life that sounds like he really believes this end of the world stuff.

While I’m really quick to praise rappers who let doubt seep through their hubris, a downright despondent rapper is a new beast entirely. I don’t want to say it’s welcome, because I can certainly sympathize with some of the sentiments he’s feeling, albeit from a different perspective. You could say he’s refined his focus, or that it’s a relatively fresh take on the world as it is, but even those words fail to really sum the album up. So I’m going to go ahead and let my vocabulary fail me: it’s just a good record.

Posted by Joe Kaiser at Jun 20, 2009 04:31 PM