Tru Life
Tru York

Since signing to Roc La Familia last year, Tru Life has been a hot topic of conversation on both corners and barbershops. Now the volatile Boricua, who first found fame after he shook down Mobb Deep on the Beef DVD, has picked a new crew of rappers to terrorize. According to Tru, the riff between him and the Diplomats started after Jim Jones took offense to Tru’s street single “The New, New York.” In an effort to air ’em all out and take some cheap shots in the process, the Lower East Side Manhattanite recorded the highly entertaining Tru York, hosted by mixtape DJ J-Love.

After a “Freestyle Intro” courtesy of Jay-Z—where the top of the Roc announces, “If you fuckin’ tired of your favorite rapper lyin’ to you, allow me to introduce you to Tru Life”—Tru threatens to have the “big homie” push Juelz Santana’s album back. The barrage continues over BDP’s 1987 classic instrumental for “The Bridge Is Over.” Rechristening the song “The Dips Is Over,” Tru spits, “Cam and Jim Jones, they be dressin’ like they gay/Wearin’ tight pants with the motorcycle chains.” The Uptown Boys’ gear gets further ridiculed on “In Dem Jeans,” where Tru says, “Pink is for booty bandits, not Bloods/Bet you had to jump up and down just to put ’em [jeans] on.”

Though the braided MC hits some more harmonious notes with Snoop Dogg on “NY, LA” and pulls out some vintage-sounding rhymes from fellow Latino N.O.R.E. on “Knives Like,” Tru’s one-man crusade to dismantle the Diplomats often downplays his own lyrical improvement. But whether Tru’s spitting hard for the block over guitar riffs on “Doors Go Up” or doing it for the dance floor on “Get That Paper,” he definitely lives up to all the hype. —OMAR MAZARIEGO