Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life Review

Sampling a chorus of orphans from a Broadway musical and turning it into a hard luck anthem is the sort of idea that either makes a career or ends one. It made one. Hard Knock Life is still an absurdly effective record, and Can I Get A and Money Ain't a Thang gave him the radio presence the first two albums lacked. Underneath the hits the album is more workmanlike than its reputation suggests.

Ride or Die and Coming of Age are strong, and A Week Ago is a real story about a friend going to prison, but there are stretches of competent filler where the debut had none at all. The rapping is looser and more playful and noticeably less precise. The trade is clear enough: he swapped the writing density of the debut for a much bigger room, and he lived in that room for the next five years. As a commercial record it is close to perfect. As an album it is his first merely good one.