Young Buck Straight Outta Cashville: G Unit Collectors Edition Vol. 2. CD

STRAIGHT OUTTA CASHVILLE lives up to the N.W.A. reference in its title. Like N.W.A., Buck delivers lyrical blows--sudden, blunt, and ruthless--without forgetting the importance of a powerful hook to seduce the listener into his murky world, particularly on the hit single "Let Me In." As with fellow G-Unit member 50 Cent, Young Buck lived the life he relates. His life pours out gloriously and without apology on "Look at Me Now" and "Prices on My Head." Young Buck has hustled hard to get his chance, but on STRAIGHT OUTTA CASHVILLE, he offers a powerful panorama of street life.

This DVD is a home-town testament destined to mark country music's ground zero as a place where hip-hop bumps as much as Brooks & Dunn. Buck says, "It tells you my way of living up on to this day. I wan't the world to get a feel of me, showing them the way I am and the way I get down."

The timing of Young Buck's last-minute addition to G-Unit (in the wake of original member Tony Yayo's incarceration), mere months before the group released the massively successful BEG FOR MERCY, may seem fortuitous to say the least. However, the hard-as-death rapper from Tennessee had been on the edge of the rap scene for almost a decade, earning his stripes behind the scenes with the Cash Money crew. On Young Buck's solo debut, STRAIGHT OUTTA CASHVILLE, he explodes with more energy than a neutron bomb.

Personnel: Young Buck (rap vocals); D-Tay, David Banner, 50 Cent, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, Tony Yayo, Mister Porter, Stat Quo, Lil' Flip (rap vocals); Daz, Lloyd Banks, Supafly, The Game.

Rolling Stone (p.146) - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 - "[C]rime rap par excellence - unrepentantly grimy lyrics backed by soulful production."
Spin (p.117) - "[O]ne of the most uncompromising mainstream rap discs in recent memory..." - Grade: B+