It Was Written Review

The complaint in 1996 is that he sold the corner for a boardroom, and you can hear why people said it. Trackmasters bring radio gloss, the drums are bigger, the hooks are built for stadiums, and the persona hardens into a crime boss with a cigar. Two things make the complaint look silly now. The first is that the writing gets better, not worse.

I Gave You Power narrates an entire song from the point of view of a gun that has grown tired of being fired, which is the kind of conceit that collapses in almost anyone else's hands and does not collapse here. The Message is four minutes of icy menace over a loop that has been chased by a hundred imitators. Affirmative Action turns a posse cut into a numbers racket.

Take It in Blood and Shootouts do the plain violent reporting without romance. The second is that the sound holds up. If I Ruled the World is a genuinely warm pop record with a real idea inside it, and the darker cuts have a black lacquer finish that suits him. Some of the guest heavy stretches drag and the Dr. Dre track is a misfire. What lands is a rapper deciding he wants a mass audience and refusing to get dumber to reach it.