Informal Introduction

09/24/2002 10:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dan Leroy

With his laid-back, slightly sinister flow, babyfaced gangsta Shade Sheist bears more than a passing similarity to Snoop Dogg as a young pup. It's an impression his debut tries to reinforce at almost every opportunity, loaded as it is with latter-day G-Funk performed by many of the same names that made Doggystyle man's best friend a decade ago.

The difference is that Shade doesn't dominate those collaborators as Snoop once did; he's buried by Nate Dogg's syrupy hooks on "Wake Up" and "Cali Diseaz," and only gets one verse (albeit a good one) on his breakthrough hit, last year's "Where I Wanna Be." What Shade needs is space, which he's provided on Timbaland's "Money Owners," an electro-funk stunner that puts his cash-obsessed rhymes in the best possible light. Otherwise, too much of this familiar-sounding Introduction is really unnecessary.