C-Murder's compelling 2005 album,
Truest $#!@ I Ever Said, communicated the bleakness, hopelessness, and horror of life in jail in such a manner that it seemed
Master P's No Limit empire had impossibly spawned its own
Iceberg Slim. Unfortunately, the lukewarm and uneven 2008 release
Screamin' 4 Vengeance -- recorded between murder trials and while on house arrest -- puts that argument on ice with its overall lack of purpose and
C-Murder's odd choice of returning to gun talk for gun talk's sake. There's no insight and little addressing of how we got to this point, but there's primal rage, boasts of murder, and plenty of other lyrics that should have prosecutors taking notes. The deadpan, almost dead delivery that made
Truest so chilling is replaced by a more aggressive, more everyday style, and the guest stars in a parade ranging from
Krayzie Bone to
Slim Thug either fail to connect or outshine their host. The beats from 2Saint and a handful of other C-list producers are serviceable, "Mihita" is an interesting metaphor for gun as girlfriend, and the singles "Be Fresh" plus "Posted on tha Block" have solid hooks, but talk about "Shawty's so fresh" from someone looking at an extended stay in lockup is just too incongruous to consider. If
Screamin' 4 Vengeance is an attempt at a hit album, it's an expectedly rushed and uninspired one. Whatever the motivation, it's a disappointment and only of interest to the most hardcore of fans. [
Screamin' 4 Vengeance was also made available in a clean version, with all explicit material removed.] ~ David Jeffries