The appeal of Nashville rapper Young Buck isn't immediately evident. He's neither as clever as Bun B nor as witty as Biggie, and he doesn't begin to approach the charisma of a T.I. or the talent of Lil' Wayne. Buck's shtick, quite simply, is that he's sounds like a very real dude. Sure, authenticity is a slippery notion, but it is integral to the appeal of Buck the World and is at least, in part, explainable. Much of it has to with Buck's voice-- a gruff, damaged baritone that is both punishing and straining-- but it's also because his rhymes are three dimensional. Listen to the first verse on "Look at Me Now", from his debut, where Buck lights "cancer sticks" beneath streetlights, wondering how to get his mother out of "bricks" that have neither lights nor water. That desire is undercut by reality, and soon Buck quips that "Er'body got a grave, we just waitin' to go to it." Or listen to "Slow Your Roll", from the occasionally satisfying yet largely disappointing sophomore album, Buck the World, where he tenderly recounts friends, lovers and neighbors who died too early.
Of course, it also doesn't hurt his cred that Buck (aka David Darnell Brown) stabbed a man in front of cameras at the 2004 Vibe Awards, and later, amazingly, walked out of court with only a three-year probationary period. That darker, violent side is also apparent on Buck the World, and tracks such as the title track, "Push 'Em Back" and "Buss Yo' Head" are pure bluster. His haters, in particular, have it hard. They're "broke bitches" who "won't say it to my face" and meet a variety of ends, all unpleasant. Buck will creep out from under their beds and bust their "motherfucking head." He'll kidnap their children (who conveniently attend the same school as Buck's kids) and he brings an AK to the club. You know the drill.
These raps pander to Buck's devotees, but they alienate Buck from pop audiences and undermine his credibility. Though these tracks largely avoid the wealth porn evident on his guest spot on Lil' Scrappy's single "Money in the Bank", they are are still fantastical and hyper-stylized, and they grow old quickly, especially when the beats are as dull as they are here. Sure, "4 Kings"-- featuring T.I., Young Jeezy, and Pimp C-- and "Get Buck" are hot, but these sort of tracks worked better on Buck's debut. The hooks were bigger and more memorable, and regardless of how you feel about them personally, G-Unit members 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and expat the Game are great studio gangstas.
Which brings us to one of the biggest differences between World and his previous album, Straight Outta Cashville. Despite his purported allegiance on the meddling "Clean Up Man", Buck (or his handlers) are hedging their bets as far as G-Unit is concerned. On Cashville, released at the height of Fiddy's notoriety, members of G-unit popped up on six of the albums 15 tracks. Buck the World only features one G-Unit collaboration, 50 Cent's "Hold On". Dre is still around, but he's still in the same lame musak phase as he was on Jay-Z's Kingdom Come. On "U Ain't Going Nowhere", he reaches for jazzy nuance, but instead creates something sounds like the music for a cruise commercial. Elsewhere, the red hot Polow Da Don (who produced Rich Boy's smash "Throw Some D's") delivers another banger with the trombone laced "Get Buck", while "Haters", produced by upcoming Seattle beatsmith Vitamin D, is ravaging skeletal soul.
The problem with Buck the World is that it's largely inconsistent. There are 15 producers over 17 tracks. Sometimes it clicks, but other times it feels forced. Considering Buck's promises, I 'd hoped for an album along the lines of Scarface's classic My Diary. But in the end, World is too generic and uneven.
