YOUNG BUCK - Buck The World | Review By: Conan Milne


Release Date : March 27 2007

Label : G-Unit Records/Interscope

Rating: 3.5/5

Dub Quotable: Delve beyond the cynic-baiting title, and Buck captivates on an album that uses the brash G-Unit formula to impressive effect.

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If G-Unit’s popularity is in decline, as so many critics have speculated, Young Buck sounds somewhat unfazed. Delve beyond the cynic-baiting title, and Buck captivates on an album that uses the brash G-Unit formula to impressive effect. Thrillingly scored and vocally dominant, Buck The World sees the Cashville misfit accept the position of 50’s secret weapon.

With subtlety rarely incorporated into the G-Unit catalogue, the album opens with “Push ‘Em Back.” The track is as confrontational as the title suggests, backed by Twilight Zone-esque keys and unflinching drums. Over this sulking medley, Buck addresses the premonitions of G-Unit’s demise: “I’m not playing ‘bout The Unit and my fans knew it/Now make a lane for me ‘cause I deserve this.” The track justifies Buck’s place as a viable solo artist, as well as a soldier for his clique.

The following tracks see Buck taking increasingly reckless adversaries to task. On the ghetto gospel of “Say It To My Face,” Buck ponders whether it’s the inflated bank account or new jewellery that’s responsible for the jealous murmurs around him. The echoing organs eventually cause YB to snap, and he growls, “Just ‘cause I caught a case don’t mean you cannot be erased.” Such ill sentiment is exasperated on the thunderous mesh of percussion that is “Buss’ Yo Head.” A ferocious Buck Marley spares articulation on the chorus, chanting, “I’ll buss’ yo mothafuckin’ head, ho!”

Often Buck raps, nay, yells with such passion and conviction that such statements sound uneasily genuine. On occasion, however, he crosses the line. When this happens, ‘the Clean Up Man’ comes across as immature. “I just beat another mothafuckin’ gun case,” he bellows overzealously at the end of the afore-mentioned “Buss’ Yo Head.”

Sticking to the G-Unit blueprint of accessible, bouncy production and one-dimensional lyricism is ultimately Buck The World’s gift and curse. While the artist revels in delivering his barbed rhymes, there is little subject matter here that’s weighty enough to make the Unit detractors disappear. The rest of us, however, will be left as unfazed as Buck by most complaints; content with this low substance, undeniably entertaining blockbuster of an album.




 

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