Cash Money
2001
Bang Or Ball (Explicit)
About This Album
It wasn't easy being a West Coast gangsta rapper at the end of the '90s. Mack 10 will tell you that. Between 1995 and 1997, around the time "Foe Life" and "Backyard Boogie" were blowing up and Mack was putting it down for Cali with Ice Cube and WC on the Westside Connection album, everything was great -- Mack was on top of the game. But his career simmered out -- like nearly every other West Coast rapper's career -- following the Death Row empire's demise. Suddenly, around 1999/2000, the rap community seemed to view Mack with indifference. His Paper Route album (2000) was his least successful and his record deal with Priority had gone sour. Then, along came Cash Money Records, looking to extend its empire from the South to the West Coast -- much like No Limit had done unsuccessfully with Snoop Dogg a few years earlier. The resulting album, Bang or Ball, features Mack rapping alongside the Cash Money Millionaires over Mannie Fresh productions. It's somewhat of a strange pairing -- West Coast gangsta rap and the Dirty South. The synthesis works surprisingly well -- certainly better than Snoop's No Limit collaborations. Mack sounds comfortable dropping rhymes over Fresh's beats and sounds at home alongside the Big Tymers, in particular, rapping about the usual gangsta topics: sex, cars, drugs, money, player haters, boasting, and so on.
Track List (try track 5)

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