Operation Stackola
In Luniz lingo, you got your playa (i.e. "player") and you got your playa hata ("player hater"). And when the twain doth meet, well, you have two things: trouble and fodder for a new rap. In fact, the Lunz's second single from this 1995 collection was "Playa Hata." The Luniz are self-proclaimed playas. Notes to the Luniz's debut CD posit the duo as crown-princes of the "crazy, comical, wild-side of gangsta hip-hop," but it's fair to say they're not loony in the Bugs Bunny sense of the word. The group's logo is a scowling cartoon figure draped in a used condom and wielding a handgun.Operation Stackola, is a loose concept album about the protagonists' criminal and sexual exploits as they go about accumulating money "by any means necessary." The twosome's contrasting rapping style and the booming beats assembled by eight different producers make for an involving album, but you don't have to hypersensitive to be bothered by the misogyny of "She's a Freak. And the N-word surfaces enough in the album's 16 tracks to make Mark Fuhrman feel at home.--Steven Stolder