DJ Smallz & DJ MUSIC Scream Present Young Buck, Back For The Streets

When G-Unit first introduced Young Buck as its newest member I remember thinking, “He’s from Nashville, TN?? He’s gonna be trash!” Then slowly but surely he started killing his mixtape appearances and features. Then he dropped Straight Outta Cashville and I was sold. After that I was convinced that Buck was one of thee nicest MCs from the south. Next thing you know 50 dropped him in a way that made Vivica A. Fox say, “Least he had a little more respect for me.”

Since his best impression of Tanya Harding at the 1994 Olympics was leaked by Pimpin’ Curly, Buck’s been flying below the radar, but the streets been calling and he’s finally picked up the horn. Buck’s returned with “Back For The Streets,” and I for one was amped to hear what the Cashville Ten-A-Key soldier had in store for the hood.

From the get with, “Chevy Music” I got the feeling that this wasn’t the “Most of my enemies dead/I got about two left” Buck whose music I know and love.

Stepping away from the “My chopper got a body on it! Do anybody want it!?” sound, Buck is taking his music into a different direction and attempting to reinvent himself as more of a southern sounding artist than an East/West Coast murderer he was with G-Unit. In doing that his rhymes seem to have gotten simpler.

With a slow as Wayne on syrup flow on “Strip Club,” Buck described the woman of his dreams as, “a Gucci bag bitch/working all the strip clubs, she keep her hair fixed… independent bitch/cornbread fed/big round titties and them big bold legs/and she tatted up/buy her on drank/pay her own bill, she got money in the bank.” Trust me, it reads better than it actually sounds. And that’s just an example of what he’s like on BFTS. He tried something different with “Can’t Catch Me” and used a walkie-talkie sound and repetitive rhyme flow to make the song, but he just came off sounding like that bum ass, Young City. Based off the title I thought “Cocaine” was gonna be crack, but it just turned out to be something that even Whitney Houston wouldn’t smoke.

On the other hand, joints like “Where The Hoes At,” “Money Rite,” and “Everybody Do It” we’re treated to vintage sounding Buck with that, “I’m wide awake and paying attention” tone of voice. But those were about it. Everything else sounded like they had the same rhythm with the same flows.

When the mixtape was over the one thing that was painfully obvious was that Buck doesn’t have that aggression and grimeyness that he used to have on his older material. He’s more laid back and using a low tone on his joints. Most of the production was done by The Future and his sound is definitely a cruise through the hood at 2 miles per hour type, and I guess Buck was trying to keep up—or slow down rather—to compliment the producer’s work. But that proved to work against him. I was looking forward to hearing that Young Buck that had nuccas in the hood settling old beefs and starting new ones at the local White Castle while listening to joints like “Do It Myself” or “There Will Be Blood.” For the most part the music on this music was slow paced and just not that live wire sh*t that we’re used to hearing from Buck Marley. He came off sounding like he was auditioning to be a Hot Boy, but this doesn’t change the fact that when Young Buck drops something new I’ll be right there to listen to what he has to say. I just hope that his next mixtape he takes it back to the ski mask and not the strip club.-The Infamous O

Hottest Joint: “Re Up”

Weakest Joint: “All Eyez On Me”