Young Buck Reviewed
Young Buck
Buck The World
(G Unit/Interscope)
After pre-release drama was drummed up to trumpet his return, Young Buck’s sophomore album fails to live up to its confrontational title.
Is the beef with The Game over with? Is he in our out of G Unit? Should Tony Yayo have allegedly smacked a teenager? What in “The Days Of Our Lives” is going on here? At first it seemed Buck had shed his image as 50 Cent Jr. — he was shot only twice — in a moment of blind rage during the 2004 BET Awards, but the soap opera and his debut album (Straight Outta Cashville) and now Buck The World keep him on the bench.
Like other G Unit releases, World flirts with grander themes (“Clean Up Man,” “Losing My Mind”) but sticks to reliable bluster, blunts, and bitches. Throughout the album, it’s never an issue of whether Buck can’t pull it together for a moment of transcendence, but more that he won’t even try. He gets run over by Bun B on the chilling “Say It To My Face” and even manages to let Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington slide right past him on “Slow Ya Roll.” When he does step up and clear the guest bedroom, “Buss Yo’ Head” and “Money Good” seem to stall on the assembly line. Hi-Tek impressively molds “I Ain’t Fuckin’ Wit U” to accommodate Snoop Dogg’s smooth roll and Buck’s threats, and G Unit sound more solid than ever when 50 Cent shows up on “Hold On.” But three of the most intriguing combos — with Lyfe Jennings, Latoya Washington, and Jazze Pha — fizzle, and ultimately take the rest of this 75-minute slogfest with them.
— Kevin Keegan
