This is for the girls in the trap steady hustlin'.

"Knuck if you Buck" is one of the year's best singles so I decided to check out the album.

Crime Mob's album is on Reprise which is the same label that released the great Lil Scrappy/Trillville record earlier this year. They sound like related albums in a strange way, like Scrappy/Trillville is the sound of Lil Jon's big-budget super-club crunk and Crime Mob is the stripped down, minimalistic, even skeletal low-budget cousin. And it is almost as good an album, too.

Crime Mob is six members, Killa C, Cyco Black, Jock, Lil Jay, Princess and Diamond. Their beats are gothic and minor-key and they sometimes sound like 3-6 but without the bombast and they definitely sound much younger. In fact they sound so young that it made me think of early hip-hop in many ways, especially the low-budget feel of the production and the fact that they rap like a team, trading verses without one MC dominating the preceedings so the Crime Mob becomes more important than any individual rapper. They also sound young because they keep messing up and sliding off the rhythm but they rap with a lot of passion and that makes up for it a bunch. "Knuck if you Buck" was the first single and it looks like the second single is gonna be "Stilettos (Pumps)" which is a great song that features Diamond and Princess, the two girls who really tear shit up on this album.

Sometimes it gets a little samey and overall I'd say this album is more promising than great but I like it a lot anyway.

Here is an mp3 of "Black Market Bonus" which kicks off with this crazy burbling noise.



You can buy the Crime Mob album here.