bootlegsremmyma.jpgAfter leaving SRC/Universal and Terror Squad and picking up a pesky attempted-murder charge, Remy Ma should be feeling herself a lot less than she is. Yet, all that drama won’t stop her from speaking her piece. To assuage fans ’til her next solo LP drops, the troubled MC offers up Shesus Khryst. Touting herself as “The Bronx Savior,” Remy makes the Kingdom Come–esque assertion that the femcee-deficient rap game needs saving, and she’s the obvious heroine.

In pleading her case, Rem knows her best bet is keeping it thorough. Comin’ extra greazy on tracks like “Remy Time” and the Currency-assisted Wu-Tang flip “C.R.E.A.M.,” she does just that. Ma gets to male-bashing on the Papoose-featured “Stuntin’,” where she voices her frustration over T-Mix’s stutter-step production: “Niggas keep talkin’ ’bout the best rappers alive/Who’s bringing New York back/And who’s the top five/Well, I’m in the top two.” While the stay-fly anthem “Fresh” finds her spitting “couture hip-hop,” Remy turns the Kris Kross classic “Jump” into a song about jump-offs, with original ad-libs cleverly intact.

From there, though, the gangsta-chick shtick gets old quick. During her attempted takeover, Remy mistakenly opts for primarily Southern-jacked beats, when hard boom-bap is more her forte. Her sometimes lazily delivered verses sound even more garbled alongside the chopped-and-screwed hooks of tracks like “Watchin’ the Game” and “Pick the Money Up.”

Remy’s attempt to reposition herself atop the MC food chain works better when boasts of her doper-than-thou status are supported by gullier sonics, like those on “Chopped Up” and “Takin’ Ova,” featuring sidekicks Trina and Jacki-O. Over the latter song’s beastly Danja beat, she insists, “Ma, you’re not hard, you’re vagina/You’re a faux thug, you are not a fighter… I am the best female rhymer.” And, luckily, she has no problem proving she’s a cut above the rest—wherever they are. —CLOVER HOPE

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