When gangsta rap first became popular in the late '80s, it was cutting-edge and compelling. N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton and Ice-T's Power were hip-hop masterpieces that brilliantly articulated the pain and desperation of ghetto life in South Central Los Angeles. But gangsta rap became increasingly cliché-ridden in the 1990s, when a lot of it lacked the freshness that had characterized the innovations of Ice-T, N.W.A.,
Schoolly D, and the Geto Boys in the 1980s. Released in 1999,
Concrete Jungle, Vol. 1 breaks no new ground for the South Central Cartel or gangsta rap in general. The CD is full of the usual gangsta clichés about thug life in the hood, but
Cartel leaders Gary "Havoc" Calvin and Austin "Prodeje" Patterson (who shouldn't be confused with the Havoc and Prodigy who comprised Queens'
Mobb Deep) are so skillful that you end up liking the material despite all its clichés. The rapping is solid -- none of the various West Coast MCs who join Havoc and Prodeje have any problem flowing -- and Prodeje's production is consistently attractive. Jams like "What You Waitin' 4" and "Thug Disease" aren't innovative or groundbreaking; the Cartel doesn't tell you anything that
Ice Cube and Ice-T didn't tell you in 1988. But they're infectious, and
Concrete Jungle, Vol. 1 ends up being an enjoyable, if limited, exercise in foot-pattin' G-funk. ~ Alex Henderson