The practice of having guest rappers featured on recordings credited to others is well established and often serves as a means of introducing new talent. Indeed, Yungstar made his name as a featured rapper on Lil' Troy's "Wanna Be a Baller." But his debut album, initially released by Houston-based Straight Profit Records and reissued in this beefed-up version by Epic, takes the guest rapper trend to its logical absurdity: there are so many guests -- no less than 22, with as many as six performing on a single track -- that it's hard to hear much of the nominal headliner. The youthful-sounding Yungstar makes his most prominent appearance on "Knocking Pictures Off da Wall" early on, but for the rest of the album, Straight Profit CEO Den Den seems to be using the tracks to try out a succession of performers. They share several slang terms and an overall attitude of pride about their area, dubbed "The 3rd Coast" (i.e., the coast of the Gulf of Mexico). Refreshingly, they indulge in derogatory and obscene language and subject matter to only a limited extent; the album contains a parental advisory sticker, but it is far less offensive than much current rap. Still, it functions more as a various-artists sampler than as Yungstar's debut album, and the rappers come and go so quickly that none of them make a distinct impression. [The 2000 version features a seven-track bonus disc.]
© William Ruhlmann /TiVo