Lox: We Are The Streets

As Bad Boy's only hardcore act following the death of The Notorious B.I.G., Lox had a lot to live up to when it released its hotly anticipated Money, Power & Respect in 1998. But despite the best efforts of Puff Daddy and his minions, the group never seemed comfortable inhabiting the flossy, ultra-commercial Bad Boy universe, a fact no amount of Rod Stewart samples could conceal. The group made a highly publicized leap from Bad Boy to Ruff Ryders last year, and while the move may make sense commercially, We Are The Streets illustrates once again why blind allegiance to one production team is often a mistake. Like DMX and Eve before it, Lox is hindered by its dependence on Ruff Ryders' production. Swizz Beatz' sample-free beats may be commercially savvy, but a few of We Are The Streets' weak, monotonous, Beatz-produced tracks are enough to make you wish he'd sample something—Rachel Sweet, Wall Of Voodoo, anything—so he could give that damn synthesizer a rest once in a while. Not surprisingly, the two best tracks here are those in which Lox works with outside producers: The DJ Premier-produced "Recognize" coasts along agreeably over a piano-laden track, while the Timbaland-produced "Ryde Or Die, Bitch" provides the album's only other respite from Ruff Ryders hackwork. Lox was among the best rap acts in Puffy's stable, but it's never strayed far from the gangsta template. That narrow focus, coupled with terrible production, sinks We Are The Streets early on, and the album never even begins to recover.