Rating:
Genre:
Rap
Release Date: 04/17/2001
It has been a full decade since
ED O.G. and Da Bulldogs made their initial splash, with the under-appreciated
Life of a Kid in the Ghetto (which spawned
Yo MTV Rap favorites
"I Got Too Have It," "Bug-a-Boo," and the moralizing classic
"Be a Father to Your Child"). Though the phrase is thrown around liberally, it is safe to call his return a comeback. After all, his reclamation project
The Truth Hurts appears eight years after
Ed, and
Da Bulldogs were given the pink slip by
Mercury Records. While a few clumsy tracks are created to meet current fads, such as the
Swizz Beatz-like electronic keyboards of
"On Dogz" and the horribly misplaced posse cut
"Last Word," which is an attempted club track gone awry. The producer-by-committee approach (
Nottz,
DJ Spinna,
Dialek, and
Roddy Rod)
Ed implements, works when things are kept simple (
"Extreme" and
"Too Much"). This is most evident on the
Pete Rock produced
"Situations" and the
Premier laced
"Sayin' Something," where
ED delivers his strongest vocal performance: "alcohol and weed is my vices/to see my daughter smile is priceless/I leave the nicest lifeless/return like Christ in a crisis/take this American pie/and distribute out slices." Will hip-hop's now largely pretentious fanbase re-embrace the man who put Boston on the map? Probably not. And as he states on
"Situations," he has a pretty good idea why: "It ain't about how you flow/its about who you know/and who gon' get behind you with dough to make you blow."
~Matt Conaway, All Music Guide
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