Young Buck is caught between a rock and a hard place. Should he remain one of 50 Cent’s sidekicks in the G-Unit, or break out and become his own solo star? With “Straight Outta Cashville,” a play on N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton,” Young Buck, the youngest and only non-New York member of the G-Unit, accomplishes both.
He attempts to rise out of the shadow of his mentor 50 Cent, but fails by not giving us the best he has to offer. The whole album packs just as many thuggish boasts and gritty details of street brutality as 50’s debut yet falls short from the lack of effort Buck brings to the album.
But what makes Young Buck stand apart from 50 Cent and fellow G-Unit rapper Lloyd Banks is his Southern perspective. Being from the country capital of the United States would seem like a death nail to most rappers, but Buck is not ashamed and lets you know it.
His boasts (“We pop pills, shoot to kill; you know what we ’bout.”) with fellow Southerners Lil’ Flip and Mississipian David Banner on the hard-edged Southern anthem “Welcome to the South” tell of a fight-to-survive life on the Nashville streets.
On the excellent Dr. Dre-produced opener, “I’m A Soldier,” Dre takes a note from 50’s “Patiently Waiting” and adds a brooding bass line to the already Army-precision rhythm. Buck professes to stand by his partner in crime and make his presence known to all his enemies (“The South ain’t safe no more, so get a gun, and pray to God that you make it to see 21”).
Young Buck separates himself from the fakes on “Do It Like Me,” where he says, “Half these (expletive) lie in they rhymes; they don’t even read the paperwork, just sign on the line.” He also boasts of his unmatchable skills (“You can walk like I do and talk like me, too, but nobody ride rock with you ’cause you can’t do it like me”) and good fortune (“All my life, I hustled all night; now I’m alright, my wrist is all ice”).
On his first single “Let Me In,” 50 Cent ties in his signature hit “In Da Club” and Buck announces his arrival in the rap world with “I know you gon’ let me shine and get mine.”
In “Look At Me Now,” Buck tells that he’s proud of how he grew up, even if it wasn’t the way he hoped it would be. “This is who I am, not who I wanna be; open up your eyes and see what these streets done done to me,” he raps, backed by Denaun Porter’s soulful, Middle-Eastern-tinged production.
On “Prices On My Head,” Buck’s equivalent to 50’s “Many Men,” and where Buck’s fellow G-Unit partner Lloyd Banks gives a welcome cameo, Young Buck retaliates against his enemies who have him in their crosshairs (“My arms is open to anybody who wants beef; I promise I won’t sleep ’til y’all layin’ six feet”).
On the Lil’ Jon-produced “Shorty Wanna Ride,” Buck asks girls to follow through with their requests to roll with him and promises “you can be my wife, but only for tonight,” all atop Jon’s frenetic, but laid-back production.
Other tracks like “Black Gloves,” “Stomp” and “Taking Hits” are up to par with what is expected to come out of the G-Unit, but the highlights are the hip-hop, street prayer “Thou Shall,” where Buck, backed by eerie chants, unwillingly goes against his beliefs to do what has to be done (“Thou shall not steal and thou shall not kill, but rub me the wrong way (expletive) and I will”) and the excellently produced “Bang Bang,” which samples the hypnotic, haunting rhythm of Nancy Sinatra’s classic song of the same name and gives more carnality to Sonny Bono’s original lyrics. “Thou Shall” and “Bang Bang” stand out in an album filled with good but too familiar hip-hop production.
Young Buck ends up proving that he has what it takes to standout on his own, but needs to realize his potential to be just as good as-if not better than-his G-Unit contemporaries. “Straight Outta Cashville” is his reach for 50’s “Get Rich or Die Tryin” glory, and with the albums to follow, he has a good chance of reaching it.