Red Gone Wild
Jersey boy, sometime actor, longtime rapper Redman ends to a five-year album hiatus withRed Gone Wild. "Thee Album," as its subtitle suggests, slings all the comeback bravado it can. From the opening bump of "Fire," Redman rolls out his own red carpet, strutting the whole way. "Rite Now" swipes and recalls the thumping throwback funk Redman first exploited well with 1994'sMuddy Waters, and "Freestyle Freestyle" adds a heavy shuffle to that. Throughout, Redman and a bevy of guests saunter through backing tracks built around Marvin Gaye, Millie Jackson, Curtis Mayfield, Rick James, and Bob Marley (the viscerally stupid and strangely arresting "Blow Treez"). In one of the album's wilder moments, "Sumtn 4 Urrbody," rappers Blam, Runt Dog, Ready Roc, Icadon, and Saukrates drop in to party for a verse each: suddenly, the line "Hair on my chest look like taco meat" never sounded so good. Lines that doggone dirty have stapled seams through the beats of every Redman record since 1994'sDare Iz A Darkside, at least. But Seattle producer Vitaman D cooks up the album's wildest cut, namely the abysmally thick pulse gunning beneath the ironic silliness of "Pimp Nutz." To his continuing credit, Redman's got no problem bringing more talented collaborators into the studio and letting them loose. After all, he himself was long ago gone wild. --Jason Kirk