Since the first incarceration of Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight in 1997, the West Coast rap scene has struggled to maintain its identity. Its original forefathers, such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube, are still out here and making moves, but their status in the eyes of true Hip Hop heads hasn’t exactly been one of reverence lately.
But, the great thing about their commercial and critical struggles is that everyone is clamoring to be the new King of the Left Coast. And, when you mix the inherent hunger of new, unproven rappers with some genuine street buzz”¦well, the result is an act like Knoc-Turn’al.
Who? Ah, how quickly they forget.
Knoc made a huge splash with his work (both performing and ghost-writing) on Dr. Dre’s 2001 album five years ago. From there, the hype really took off as he hooked up with the good Doctor again for the Bad Intentions single off the soundtrack to The Wash, as well as an equally hot joint with Missy Elliott called Knoc.
In fact, Dre and Missy had such faith in Knoc-turn’al’s future, that they agreed to bankroll his Knoc’s Landing album, which was originally scheduled to drop in 2002. But, rampant bootlegging caused the album to be delayed, retooled, and then, eventually released as a six-song EP with all the songs that had already been leaked.
Two years later, Dre and Missy had backed out and Knoc-turn’al was back where he started. All of which makes The Way I Am a pretty appropriate title for this album.
It’s also the title of what was the first single, with Snoop Dogg. Scott Storch is on the boards here and it’s absolute heat. If ever a cut could sound both elegant and street, this is it. Snoop, especially, is earning his appearance fee:
I don’t get down, b*tch/ That ain’t my program
I don’t hold hands and I don’t slow jam”¦
Knoc, however, is not all that convincing with his gun-toting or girl-stroking lines of excess and extravagance. He’s more in his element on the clichéd Love LA. Throwing around dated references like “low-lows” and “six-fo’s”, he’s certainly sincere, if not a little silly, when he’s telling the haters:
You pop lock, we pop glocks”¦
And, if that one sounds like something right out of the West Coast Time Capsule, then What We Do has got to be in there somewhere, too. Xzibit, Warren G and Nate Dogg channel the spirit of 1994 when G-Funk was this coast’s calling card. The chemistry here is off the charts and it flows smoothly from the gravelly flow of X, to the “well, at least he’s trying” style of Warren G, with Nate’s hooks holding it together.
DJ Quik pops up on Love Slave and laces it with his usual underrated production work that pierces the air with a sound that softens Knoc’s nasal flow and a pared-down drum beat. The subject matter is all about “freakin’ the hoes between the sheets”, though.
OK, as a concept, it’s not exactly a higher art form”¦but, it’s still more listenable than Watch Out with its, uh, “more direct approach”:
F*ck ’em in they house/ F*ck ’em in they jeep
F*ck ’em when they woke/ F*ck ’em when they sleep
F*ck ’em in they throat/ Hey, man, that’s f*ckin’ deep
Meanwhile, Click-Click brings its own brand of annoyance with repeated gun shots on the backing track, blended with a generic beat right out of an ’80s arcade game. On Peeping Tom, over a start-and-stop beat, Knoc gives it up to those who came before him by putting together an entire track using other West Coast rappers’ lyrics and song titles. Yeah, it’s been done before (and better), but we’re grasping for positives here.
