You can’t start a conversation about west coast rap without bringing up MC Eiht. The veteran’s introduction to the game was as a member of the group Compton’s Most Wanted who released their first album in 1990 with “It’s a Compton Thang”. Eiht went on to release his own debut solo project “We Come Strapped” in 1994 shortly after his breakthrough single “Streiht up Menace” which was a part of the “Menace to Society” soundtrack, a movie in which he also played the role of a gangbanger.
Now 27 years deep into the game and Eiht decided to drop his 13th solo album “Which Way Iz West” and the timing couldn’t be better. Eiht explained in an interview on Vlad TV that the album is a sort of back to my roots project to remind west coast hip hop of its identity which has been lost in the pursuit of trends.
The album features a number of (mostly) west coast rap vets including Outlawz, WC, The Lady of Rage, B-Real, Xzibit, Kurupt, Compton’s Most Wanted, Maylay, Bumpy Knuckles, Big Mike & J Starr. It has a mix of production that is mostly influenced by traditional west coast G Funk and general sample-based 90s hip hop which gives the project a rather raw and hard vibe. The drums knock and you won’t find any 808s on this project.
The most notable tracks for me are “Represent Like This”, “Heart Cold”, “Got That” and “4 Tha OG’z” but the whole project is dope. It’s one of those rare projects that I can listen to from start to finish without skipping a single track. Eiht has never been the type of emcee to rely on vocal and mixing tricks to bring his lyrics to life. So you won’t find auto-tune and reverb-heavy tracks on this project because it’s not the focus of it. The focus is dope beats and rhymes and those are provided by Eiht and his collaborators.
Bringing in DJ Premier as executive producer was great because Premo is a purist in many ways and is the embodiment of real hip hop, so he and Eiht are a perfect match on this project. There doesn’t seem to be a particularly strong theme to the album that’s connecting the songs together i.e. it’s not a storyline type of album. The connecting element of the songs is embedded in the overall feel of the project where you can hear the west coast sound in the production, lyrics and vocal delivery of Eiht and the featured acts.
