Is the West Coast rap scene completely dead and buried? Since its heyday in the early to mid 1990s, everyone from Ras Kass to Kurupt to WC has claimed to be the next Great West Hope. While some of these artists have managed to move a fair amount of units, no one has been able to capture the mainstream attention that Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre or Ice Cube reached during their respective peaks.
In the summer of 2000, Shade Sheist had a regional hit with the single Where I Wanna Be. With its catchy hook (courtesy of Nate Dogg) and bouncy production, it was in heavy rotation on Southern California radio stations. Hell, I even used it to introduce my wedding party at my reception not too long ago.
In the flavor-of-the-month world of commercial rap, it’s critically important to strike while the iron is hot. Regrettably for Sheist, it took over two years for his debut Informal Introduction to be released. Even worse for the California rapper, he’s mostly an afterthought on nearly every track.
Executive Producer Damian “Damizza” Young handles most of the production, along with partner-in-crime Kay Gee. The results are some of the better beats of the year. Obvious examples include the Teddy Riley-flavored funk of X2 and the playful Wake Up. It’s probably not a good thing that Where I Wanna Be is still the best track on here, both lyrically and beats-wise, despite being an old joint by hip hop standards.
Oddly, there are an insane number of guest stars for what’s ostensibly a solo album. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since most of the guest absolutely blow Sheist away in terms of flow, delivery and lyrical content. In particular, Fabolous, Kurupt and even forgotten Murder Inc. diva, Vita manage to steal Sheist’s thunder at various times. When it’s not the guest artists, it’s the guest producers like DJ Quik on John Doe and Timbaland on Money Owners who deserve the spotlight.
Sheist doesn’t help matters with his nearly catatonic delivery. On most tracks he is barely audible, almost eagerly relinquishing the mic to the more proven talent. Even more curious is his declaration in the opening track Somebody Steals the Show that he’s “from the streets” but “proud to never gangbanged”. Sheist then proceeds to lyrically contradict this claim throughout the album.
