Success has always eluded veteran L.O.X./D-Block emcee Sheek Louch. Yet when news broke that Sheek would follow his Yonkers brethren Jadakiss to Def Jam Records, fans saw a new chapter in his criminally slept-on career beginning to unfold – that is, until they caught a glimpse of the cover art to his latest effort Donnie G: Don Gorilla.
While it truly isn’t fair to judge a book by its cover, the Pen and Pixel-quality art of Sheek’s fourth studio album speaks volumes about the LP. Although Sheek gives a valiant performance on the mic throughout the majority project, the paper-thing song content and unimaginative production make Donnie G: Don Gorilla a wholly disappointing experience and one of Def Jam’s flimsiest releases in recent years.
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Sheek has always been the bluntest of the three members of The L.O.X. While Jadakiss and Styles P pride themselves on intricate wordplay and lyrical gravitas, Sheek aptly counters their performances with a raw ferocity that established him the veritable B.A. Baracus of the crew. And as the album’s title intimates, little has changed with regards to Sheek’s delivery; he’s as hard-edged as he’s ever been, for better and worse. Songs like “Out of the Ghetto,” “Ready4War” and “Dinner Guest” find the Silverback Gorilla at most rugged, spitting no-nonsense bars on like “My mama had no choice, was surrounded by crack spots / So yeah I’ma floss these canaries and black rocks / Drop-tops, flying down the alleyway, hammer on my right side / Black and white chain on, Africa, apartheid.”
Despite his penchant for bullet-blunt rhymes, Donnie G’s standout cut “Nite Falls” finds Sheek exhibiting a depth and expert level of wordplay that critics tend to overlook. It’s a thoughtful look at the grind, as Sheek spits, “I’m painting this vivid picture / My Bible, lyrical scripture / You thugging? Whatever fits ya / These bullets’ll come and get ya.” While Sheek is far from shaking his thugged-out veneer on this one, the song’s chorus reveals the rapper’s conflicting views on the industry as he meditates on “the women and the drugs and the cars and the jewels and the bodies on the news / I ain’t playing with these fools.”
Unfortunately for the listener, however, Donnie G is no Donald Goines novel, and whatever profundity “Nite Falls” achieves is quickly lost in translation. Although there are a few real gems deserving of inclusion in the D-Block rhymer’s canon – including the Fabolous-assisted “Make Some Noise”
and the Jamrock-tinged D-Block anthem “Dinner Guest” – the majority of the album is packed with shoestring budget club bangers devoid of soul and wit. While the Jeremih-assisted single “Party After 2” finds Louch achieving the same level of radio-friendly amusement as ‘08’s “Good Love,” other songs like the unlistenable ”Picture Phone Foreplay” and the insipid “Club Jam Packed,” featuring the inexplicably still-employed DJ Webstar, kill whatever fun the listener was having. Even a number Sheek’s harder-edged tracks fall limp, as songs like “Get It Poppin’” and the hackneyed “Ol’ Skool” (featuring a surprisingly tame Bun B) add little to the standard that bangers like “Dinner Guest” and Jadakiss-assisted “Clip Up (Reloaded)” set.
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Even more disasterous than the mediocre content is the bottom-of-the-barrel beats over which Sheek is forced to rock. Despite some bright spots from Statik Selektah’s Prog Rock-inflected“Nite Falls”, and Red Spyda’s menacingly dubbed-out “Dinner Guest,” Donnie G’s production is a floundering poor man’s attempt to mimic Fabolous, a particularly mystifying feat given the Def Jam budget behind the album. From inoffensively bland jams like Y-Not’s “Ready4War,” the Futuristiks Team Ready’s “Get it Poppin’” and J. Cardim’s “Ol’ Skool,” to the shrill mess of noises that make up Bangledesh’s grating “Picture Phone Foreplay,” the album is as uninspiring as it is irritating.
Although Sheek Louch proves himself to be an artist worthy of their consideration on numerous occasions on this album, his debut release on the historic label is underwhelming, marred with half-hearted attempts strike a balance between the streets and the club.
