First off, I'm admittedly not the best judge of straight up "rap." Not to say I don't have an appreciation for the genre, but where it can excell in lyrical content, execution and structure, it often fails (miserably) in offering any tangible music to back it up. WAY too much attention is paid to getting them ill ryhmes and dope call-outs that the artists often settle on one little tiny loop of drum and bass to hold up all the whole of their message.

"Naughty By Nature" wholly suffer this genre limitation. Song after song of limited musical depth serve to be the platform upon which K.Gist, V.Brown and A.Criss layer their brand of hip-hop sermons. I will give them this, they have an admirable range within their own vocal lines, and play off and with each other in a very accomplished and smoothed out manner, that give a lot of life to the limited musical structures.

Most will remember "NbyN's" hit from a few years back, titled "O.P.P.," and the hook which made that song a hit. It just isn't present on this album. What is present, is a confidence and maturity and execution of the lyrics that have a definite edge. But back to my point of music, "O.P.P." used a recognizable sample for it's main musical progression. The song was put together with a pop song structure, very tangible for a rap song, and it's that tangibility that led to their crossover success. This album plays on some good ideas, and mixes the approach up a bit from song to song. "Ring The Alarm" has a nice steady beat with sorta sung, but more like spoken, a sassy musical lilt for the chant along chorus and starts the disk out with a solid vibe.

Not until the toward the middle of the disk are we treated to the sly "Work," with it's female voiced working of the title and other passages interspersed by some more straight ahead vocal work. Those down with the whole rap scene will undoubtable enjoy the parade of guests that pop up from track to track. "Live Or Die" features Master P., Silkk the Shocker, Mystikal & Phiness, while "Thugs And Hustlers" has appearances by Mag & Krayzie Bone. "The Blues" has a nice funky sly beat, and features some R&B crooning by Next that adds a nice smoothness in opposition to harder rapped lyrics.

"Whicked Bounce" is my personal fav, with it's wicked bounce of a lyrical execution. When rap is this straight ahead, it's good to hear them getting as tricky as they can with the lyrical flow. For what this is, I feel it's a strong offering from "Naughty By Nature," and should appeal to the fans of this type of music.

The rap industry has a habit of producing quick "of-the-moment" artists. "Naughty By Nature" has somewhat of an established history, and the experience shows with the solidness of the whole disk's play. It's very stuck within it's genre and does absolutely nothing to press the envelope of what rap has to offer, but for those down, this new album from "NbyN" should be correct enough.