Yung Joc: Hustlenomics : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Last year, Atlanta rapper Yung Joc blew up a little with a debut long on stoned, hooky synth-beats, coolly drawled street stories and one great single ("It's Goin' Down"), but short on anything unique. No big changes for Hustlenomics. The title track -- which sums up the whole of Joc's wisdom-is hooked to the kind of unremarkable keyboard-driven beat you expect to find buried on a mix tape. Sometimes Joc recalls fellow hustle-centric Atlantan Young Jeezy, but between his slack diction, mild drawl and unremarkable rhymes about drug-slinging and his own greatness, Joc more often evokes a lesser, Southern version of the Game, connecting the dots on bangers like "Getting to da Money." Though the album features brawling club tracks ("B.Y.O.B."), R&B- flavored warmth ("Livin' the Life") and big-time guests like Snoop, Diddy and Rick Ross, Hustlenomics is less a treatise than a collection of lame get-rich anthems. It will probably earn Joc another gold chain or six, but it feels pretty generic.