Young Buck’sStraight
Outta Cashville is an experiment of sorts, as it is the Shady/Aftermath camp’s first soirée
below the Mason-Dixon line. The one-time Cash MoneyMillionaire was the fourth official member of the G-Unit camp that seems to be growing by
the month. Coming on the heels of 50
Cent and Lloyd Banks, the
pressure is on Buck to keep the ball
rolling both in terms of sales and fan approval. Unlike the previous G-Unit albums, Buck does not use any in-house production. To some surprise, he
keeps it all down south.

The funny thing is, it really doesn’t bear the signature of the south too
heavily. It actually sounds like what you might get if the Shady camp tried to make an album with down south appeal, which I
guess it is in a sense – but they didn’t actually produce it; real southern
cats did. Something tells me the executive producer was in full effect here.
Rambling done, the entire album can really be encapsulated in the opening track
“I’m A Soldier” – a serviceable but unspectacular beat, a catchy and violent
hook, and Buck spitting ghetto
imagery, plus some threats. While this is essentially what 50 and Lloyd did, Buck doesn’t make it work the way they
did. Where 50 and Banks have good flows and likable
charisma, Buck is just kind of there
and rarely adds anything interesting to songs. In some cases, he actually takes
away from a song such as the mind-blowing “Thou Shall.” Just an incredible beat
butchered horribly by Buck; for
real, this is just a travesty. It is still the best track on the album due to
the beat, but damn.

There is some other good stuff here, “Black Gloves” works nicely, as does the
controversial “Stomp” with the show-stealing Ludacris. “Walk With Me” is cool, and Stat Quo certainly shows some promise. “Let Me In” is pretty good
for what it is, but it is just too cookie cutter for me to like it. But for the
good there is also the trash like “Taking Hits” and the laughable “Shorty Wanna
Ride.” “Bang Bang” could have been dope, but the sample really wasn’t flipped
very well at all. What you have in the end is a very average album that is
fairly boring from front to back. Even with the obvious flaws of the albums
from 50 and Banks, both were put together in a way to make them seem better
than they really were. Straight Outta
Cashville does not possess that same quality.