Big Punisher: Yeeeah Baby : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

He may be no more, but big Pun is still a player in the hearts of hip-hop-heads, thanks to the amazing flow he flexed on his 1998 debut, Capital Punishment. With his final album, Yeeeah Baby - recorded shortly before his tragic death in February from an apparent heart condition - this Bronx-born boricua has gone out with a bang. Pun attacked standard hip-hop topics with witty, unpredictable elasticity. "Watch Those" finds him dropping mouthfuls of speed-record verses over big, ballin' rock guitars. He gives Chris Rock a run for the big yuks and bucks on an ode to his "true love," "Nigga Shit" ("Smokin' weed with my moms/ Swingin' D in her arms/No love for the cops/Getting my dick sucked with my pops"). His ill communication doesn't end there: "Laughing at You" quotes Simple Minds' New Wave guilty pleasure "Don't You (Forget About Me)." "It's So Hard" features Pun exclaiming, "I just lost 100 pounds! I'm trying to live! I ain't going nowhere - I'm staying alive!" a moment that might give even the most rugged thug pause. Pun is at his habanero hottest, however, when representing his Latino pride. On the salsa-sauced "100%," he spits, "I'm like G Rap, Pac, Master P/All balled up with a twist of Marc Anthony." It was no idle boast. (RS 838)

MATT DIEHL