Hip-Hop Island

As G-Unit adds to its entourage, newest member Spider Loc reps the west coast with the release of West Kept Secret: The Prequel (Baymaac/RBC/Koch) setting the stage for his major label debut. Spider Loc uses his laid-back flow to bring subtle realism back to Los Angeles gangsta rap. He keeps to his hustler status without flashing meaningless rhymes, and he does so without getting up in your face. Could it be that G-Unit has finally found the perfect verbal sparring partner to fight off The Game?

Spider's first single, "Blutiful World," throws back to his Crip roots and gang bangin' lifestyle. He spits about the luxurious appeal of bangin'—having everything in life from clothes, and women to drugs and his homies—without coming off as an egomaniac. The best example of his gangsta status is heard on "Big Blacc Boots" featuring Ice Cube. Spider gives props to Cube for being an original gangsta, and Cube's solo proves he'll never be deadbeat, has-been rapper: he kicks, “Drive by music use it don't abuse it/Please don't confuse it with R&B bullshit/Ice Cube ain't no broke back rapper/I'm one flop away from a fuckin' kidnapper/Hip-hop or Hollywood, bitch, I gotta win.”

Spider Loc reflects on the rough life growing up in a gang and always hustling just to get by on "All I Know." He brings conscious lyrics to his not-so-right lifestyle without being regretful. "Pursuing paper is such a dangerous race/He's got hustle in his blood though/His veins are laced/He's still hangs out where his gang is based." And like every hustler out there, Spider puts together his business plan on "Hustle To You Come Up," and raps about the everyday ghetto grind on "Close To The Edge."

West Kept Secret: The Prequel is packed mostly with gang bangin' anthems, but Spider Loc does attempt to show his soft side on "Cry And Cry," a plea to his woman to accept his lifestyle because it's the only way he knows. But "Make You Love Me" sums up who Spider Loc is—a west coast rapper who's going to do anything and everything to come up those charts as the newest spit fire member of G-Unit. "Look close tell me what you really despise/Understand haters make up the silliest lies/I know it's kinda hard to believe and you're hard to deceive/And a lost trust is hard to retrieve/I'm gonna keep it 100 make it harder to breathe in this rap shit/Serenade the heart of the thieves."

Spider's prequel blends 90's gangsta rap music with the current hustler status of Hip-Hop culture. This is just a taste of what we have yet to hear from Spider Loc's G-Unit debut – he's brings more meaning and realism to gang culture than other wannabe hustlers who have suffocated today's rap music. The verbal attacks from The Game have already started; we can only imagine how the retorts will sound.

Originally published @ http://allhiphop.com/blogs/reviews/archive/2007/09/11/18571239.aspx