Gold teeth, bronze records: Gangsta wrap-up

Shyne, Shyne; Bad Boy Records

By Dustin Seibert

For the Daily

Shyne starts off his self-titled freshman album addressing the masses whom he blames for his violent, criminal, antisocial behavior. His unapologetic plea means nothing, however, as the same old broken record has been repeated so many times. Fortunately for him, the album that follows is not all that bad on the ears.

After falling victim to bootlegging and repeated delays on the album release, Shyne's LP finally gets to see the light of record shelves. With a flow style that makes him sound like the bastard child of The Notorious B.I.G. and Slick Rick, Shyne gives the listeners 16 tracks full of drug sales and street tales over (mostly) solid production from Bad Boy's crew, always a strong point of any record to come from the label. "Bad Boyz," the first single from the album, is easily one of the record's finer points, with background reggae vocals from Barrington Levy over a simple yet catchy beat. "The Life" and "The Hit" have Shyne telling enticing street stories about heists, hits and all that good stuff. Arguably the best track on the album has to be "The Comission," which has Shyne at his finest, going pound for pound with nice Nysheim Myrick production.

The album is not without its weak points, though. Shyne has something of a problem keeping his flow on point with the beat, so he often sounds off-sync with the music. Some of the beats are also pretty cheesy and the subject matter is extremely repetitive throughout. If Puffy and his team of creative geniuses didn't know how to put together an album, making otherwise wack rappers sound like prolific artists, then the record may have been considerably worse.

The album is also not without its controversy. Shyne has reportedly alienated himself from the rest of the Bad Boy camp, which should be obvious as there are few guest appearances on the record which is not at all typical of a Bad Boy record. Nonetheless, Shyne's album is definitely playable, and it is much better than the original version, which never saw light due to bootlegging issues. Buy it, but realize that this record is not for everyone.

Grade: B-