Rating: NNN
Their max-mellow last joint, Thug Stories (Koch, 2006), bore the Charmin softness of a swan song, but lo and behold, the most harmonious thugs in hiphop have bounced back with an album featuring more high-profile guests than ever before. Peepworthy cameos from Akon, Swizz Beatz, Mariah Carey, will.i.am, Twista and the Game are called in. (Guess that’s the Loyalty part.) But is this album strong? When they’re flowing about anything but shooting people over the expensive-sounding synth-goo production, the record could pull a school bus with its teeth. But aimless, boring gunshot-laden tracks like 9mm and Gun Blast find Bone unable to let go of their dated murda-isms.
