G-Unit

Beg for Mercy

G Unit, "Beg for Mercy"

Review Score:

(6/10)
You're better off staying away from most albums featuring a superstar's posse (think B. Brown Posse) but 50 Cent's group, G Unit, actually drops a pretty decent album. This should satisfy people until Lloyd Banks and Young Buck drop their solo albums later this year. This should also satisfy those who wore out their 50 Cent "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" album.

What's interesting about this group is that what one member doesn't have, the other member(s) do. 50 Cent doesn't drop any impressive lyrics but we got Banks for that (especially his line, "F___ up your sheets like the Ku Klux Klan" in 'Groupie Luv'. And Banks doesn't have the most interesting voice in the world so we have the crazy flows of Buck to hold our attention ('Footprints' showcases his hunger while 50 provides a dope hook). And Buck has neither the dopest rhymes or the power to carry a track, so we have Banks for the former and 50 for the latter. Speaking of Buck, he is the newcomer hailing from Juvenile's disbanded U.P.T. crew from down south and filling in for then incarcerated Tony Yayo. His Southern drawl balances the other members' New York flow and truthfully is better to listen to then the two lone tracks that Yayo is on (Yayo drops less-than-impressive verses on 'Groupie Luv' and 'I Smell P___').

While the beats on here aren't as catchy as on "Get Rich or Die Tryin'", the instrumentals on 'Smile', 'Poppin' Them Thangs', and especially on Hi-Tek's 'Eye for Eye' are hot. On the other hand, it's songs like 'Smile' that bring the album's quality down: too many of these R&B-flavored "for the ladies" joints plague the album like that one, 'Wanna Get to Know You' and 'I Smell P___'. These are the same kind of joints that G Unit dissed Ja Rule for making ("But the kids used to look up to you/What happened?" says Banks on 'Stunt 101'). Also, Banks and Buck depend too heavily on 50 Cent to carry the songs. Even on Banks' and Buck's solo joints ('Smile' and 'Footprints', respectively), you can still hear 50's voice in either the chorus or the intro. I hope their solo albums aren't like this.

Overall, this album may not be a classic but it's hot enough to keep the 50 Cent bandwagon rolling for another year or two.

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