Gangsta rap is a fixture of modern music. It is a genre unto itself, spawning its ’90s, to the rapid-fire flows characteristic of the East Coast, to the slang-riddled wordplay of the Bay Area’s hyphy style. One of the most pervasive styles in its day, and one of the most ridiculed, is Southern crunk music, which has seen a decline in popularity as the region’s producers have moved toward snap, and mainstream rap culture has moved forward.
Crime Mob, however, a remnant of this arguably bygone era in rap, continues to get crunk on just about every track of their latest release, “Hated On Mostly.” Fans of the group’s first single, “Knuck if You Buck,” are likely to enjoy many of the songs on “Hated On Mostly,” which unfortunately breaks little new ground for Crime Mob or crunk music in general. The album is an appropriate soundtrack to an exceptionally crunk evening of sweating, freaking and drinking, but might turn an otherwise relaxed night into a louder, more vulgar occasion than desired.
Crime Mob succeeds in putting together the elements of crunk together in the way pioneers of the genre would have intended, but they walk in the footprints of better-known acts that have largely abandoned this style of music. “Hated On Mostly” sounds stale enough to be the lost second disc of Crime Mob’s self-titled album, released in 2004, and comes a little too soon to have much nostalgic value. This release is for dedicated Crime Mob fans and crunk aficionados only.
[email protected]