Various Artists: State Property : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Beanie Sigel and the rest of the Philly wing of Roc-A-Fella Records come out swinging on this group effort disguised as a soundtrack. "Niggas gon' keep hatin', and my clique gon' keep grindin'," informs Freeway on "Roc the Mic," his body-rocking tag-team session with Sigel. Freeway and the rest of the newcomers deliver their thug raps as if each verse might be their last. On the topically weary, musically upbeat "Sun Don't Shine," Oschino raps, "I got niggas on death row stuck with the cell number/So close to Jesus they got his cell number." But for all their steely reserve on such blaxploitation tracks as the scathing snitch harangue "Bitch Niggas" as well as "No Glory," a journey into the mind of a drug dealer, the crew is most powerful when it lets down its guard. On "Do You Want Me," Sparks finds himself falling in love and into confusion: "I think I'm getting caught up in feelings/I ask myself, 'Sparks, what is you doing? . . ./You don't even know her and already you're Carl Thomas emotional.' "Leave it to a woman to unravel even the toughest thug.

KRIS EX
(RS 890 - February 28, 2002)