I’m not one to count out old school rappers attempts to make comebacks or reinvent themselves in an effort to find a second wind in their career. But when I heard that some of the members of La Coka Nostra were originally known as House Of Pain I was as interested in listening to them as Lauren London would’ve been interested in unprotected sex with Lil Wayne had he NOT been the hottest rapper in the game (Nivea’s prego like the sauce too, but she dated Wayne way before he was a rock star). I mean last time I heard Everlast he took a break from making cowboy music to diss Eminem. Then you got his hype man and DJ. But then Ill Bill from Non Phixon was tied into the group, and he’s type ill. So I decided to P. Diddy this mixtape and just press play.

The mood was set off with a dope freestyle from Slaine over Nas’ “Made You Look” track. After that it was basically a lot of dope beats, psychotic rhymes and surprising guest features. From Snoop’s chorus on “Bang Bang” (I wonder if he paid Kam to write that too), Bun B on “Choose Your Side” and Raekwon on “Coke Moshiach," I caught myself boppin and moving to this project more than a third of the time. Everyone went in on this album in their own way. Ill Bill is a beast with the rhymes. Slaine’s flow is so nuts that it’ll eventually end up in Paris Hilton’s mouth. “Mistaken Identity” was straight swine flu shit.

And listening to that Hollywood Hulk Hogan looking sonofabitch on “Can’t Live Like This,” I realized that Everlast is probably gritter with the rhymes and lyrics than Eminem is right now saying, “Lost in a bottle of course I’m the bottom of the barrel/no apparel except for being a loser and an asshole/dressed in drugs, arrogant/they keep me happy/the same thing that’s killin’ me is the same thing that traps me/transports me, sometimes it transforms me/so I feel like I’m getting’ a blowjob in a porn scene/sometimes I feel like I’m a millionaire with no worries/a lazy fuck stuck on the couch in no hurry/no ambitions, no plans or future/got two bitches pregnant at the same time when it’s due in a month/the other in a week, they don’t even know about each other/and I don’t even love either of them!” Sounds like Lil Wayne and Everlast should get together and go bowling.

Though I haven’t paid attention to House of Pain since “Jump Around” and I haven’t touched any coke since I steamed on a Wooly Blunt with my homie Rog a decade ago, La Coka Nostra brand of hip-hop is something that could have its fan base strung out on. Thought sometimes what they say may sound like Hells Angels type living, it was still spit damn well. Each member brings a different sound and style to the table, but at the end of the day they mesh together pretty well. They’re like a white version of Slaughterhouse just not nearly as relevant. But I’m not taking anything away from the quality of their music. They made some of the rawest hip-hop music that I’ve heard in the past year, and the next time they drop a new project I still won’t be as interested as Lauren London was in having unprotected sex with Lil Wayne while being the hottest rapper in the game, but I’ll be interested. Have a good weekend y’all. Stay up and stay strapped both ways…-The Infamous O

Hottest Joint: “Can’t Live Like This”

Weakest Joint: “Nature Of The Beast”

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