By the time he recorded
Underground Hero,
MC Eiht was no longer topping the charts like he had back in the mid-'90s. He had indeed become "underground" -- like most of his many other '90s gangsta peers like
Spice 1 and
Mack 10 -- making his albums for a small cult following rather than for the masses. But
Eiht seems indifferent about his status. In fact, he almost seems to savor being underground because he no longer has to worry about chart-topping hits or haters like he did back in 1994. Throughout
Underground Hero he works with a tight circle of producers --
Nic and
Tone,
the Platinum Brothers,
Young Trey,
Daven the Mad Hatter,
Big Reese -- and never departs too far from his usual style of street rapping. Steady as ever,
Eiht sticks to the script here.