“.Tryin’ to make that shit that make ya feel good/Never commercial, ain’t real hood.”Īt this point, it’s clear Eiht makes music for the love of it. “Fuck the radio, ban me, they can’t stand me/Never winnin’ a Grammy, still gon’ jam…,” Eiht quips on “Got That,” an album highlight. Instead, he’s lived in a weird purgatory: his name rings out, but it doesn’t resonate as loudly as it should. Even as gangsta-rap gathered steam in the early- to mid-‘90s, Eiht’s blend remained especially dark, which helped him earn a cult following, but he never quite rose to the levels of popularity enjoyed by Cali contemporaries like Dr. “Sheit, neither is he though/I’m ill, I need chemo.”Įiht is a no-frills MC whose cadence and topical concepts haven’t changed one bit. “She’s aight, but she’s not Rage,” she proclaims. Elsewhere, on the menacing “Heart Cold,” the Lady of Rage turns in a fluid, battle-ready verse that plays equally well in any era-whether in 1998 or 2017. For the most part, though, Eiht and company sound rejuvenated here, sans an awkward Kurupt verse on “Gangsta Gangsta” that feels ill-prepared and doesn’t fit (“Ready or not, here I am/Katrina is my bitch, I’m breaking levees and dams”). For whatever reason, rappers aren’t often allowed the space to age once they get into their 40s, they’re considered too old to release music with any large-scale effect. With that lineup, West is the kind of album that could work well or not work at all. City,” Eiht is back with his first album in 11 years, Which Way Iz West, an all-in recording executive produced by DJ Premier and featuring a who’s who of 1990s rappers: WC, the Outlawz, Kurupt, the Lady of Rage, Xzibit, Big Mike, B-Real (of Cypress Hill), and Freddie Foxxx (aka Bumpy Knuckles).
He’s still ducking one time, all with a smirk and a “ geah.”įive years after his riveting verse on Lamar’s “M.A.A.D. Now, MC Eiht is a veteran in West Coast rap, and he’s still telling you about the hustle, about the daily struggles of merely existing in South Central Los Angeles. It’s the type of dismal narrative that would partially influence someone like Kendrick Lamar, whose rhymes are set on the same Compton-based cautionary tales. Ultimately, the character-loosely based on the protagonist in the film Menace II Society-joins a gang and dies while protecting his block. Twenty-four years ago-on 1993’s “ Streiht Up Menace,” Eiht’s breakout single-the rapper weaved a cinematic portrayal of a young man growing up in Compton, whose father was killed and mother struggled to make ends meet. There’s a voyeuristic approach to his flow, a feeling that he’s seen some shit and doesn’t want you treading that same road.
Under the dark of night, amid the wail of police sirens, he’s the lookout in a city where crooked cops and gang members can kill you all the same, where too much flash makes you a target. Over the course of his 20-plus-year career, Compton rapper MC Eiht has been the neighborhood’s straight-talking watch leader.
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