An inelegant rapper, The LOX’s Sheek Louch has long favored conversational brusqueness to slick wordplay. But veteran stature becomes him: On Silverback Gorilla, his third solo LP, Sheek sounds as comfortable analyzing the relationship between his profession and society as he does rehashing thug tropes. The Streetrunner-produced “Danga Zone”—which morphs from Capleton’s stormy original to a club-friendly reprise—bemoans “AIDS, drugs, and homeless kids.” And while “Don’t Be Them”—where he raps, “Drinking, smoking, jumping on planes / Trying to be careful of what chick gives me brains”—isn’t a terribly convincing argument against hip hop celebrity, Silverback Gorilla is a fascinating portrait of an aging grunt not quite done with the life.
Sheek Louch
Silverback Gorilla
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Released Mar 18, 2008
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