We Come Strapped Review

07/13/2005 6:25 AM, AMG


Fresh from his small role in the 1993 film Menace II Society, MC Eiht followed "Streiht Up Menace," his breakthrough hit single from the film's soundtrack, with We Come Strapped. The album may be his full-length solo debut, but Eiht is no rookie here. He had come of age as a member of Compton's Most Wanted, a semi-successful gangsta rap group, and brought along the defunct group's producer, DJ Slip, to join him. And that's pretty much all there is to this album, Eiht and Slip. Make no mistake: We Come Strapped is a sparse and straightforward album, just Eiht's ghetto rhymes and Slip's showering keyboards. And that's it: no extensive guest appearances, no P-Funk interpolations, no lavish extravagances, just Eiht's rhymes and Slip's keyboards. It all seems incredibly unlikely now, especially when you consider that this album debuted atop Billboard's R&B album chart, but sometimes simplicity can be a beautiful thing, and that's definitely the case here. Take, for instance, "All for Money," the album highlight. Here Eiht rhymes gently about doing whatever it takes to get paid while Slip's keyboards hover alongside some smooth, jazzy guitar and "la la"s in the distance. It's simple, for sure, but it's distinct and evocative. This can be said for much of We Come Strapped, a distinctly West Coast album that evokes the glamorous-yet-grimy, sunny-yet-seedy streets of Compton as well as, if not better than, any other album from the golden era of G-funk. On successive albums, Eiht and Slip developed their sound and ironically met dwindling success. This is because We Come Strapped is very much of its era, a time when West Coast gangsta rap was both new and dangerous -- in sum, exciting. Few albums from this era were more seminal than We Come Strapped. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide