Yo Gotti, Back 2 Da Basics

reviewed by dave heaton

If you think too much about it, the title Back 2 Da Basics does look a little odd on the cover next to the diamond-encrusted font that Yo Gotti's name is in, not to mention the bejeweled nameplate he's got hanging around his neck. Then again, "the basics" is more about the music itself than his image. Memphis-based (North Memphis, to be exact) Yo Gotti rhymes in cropped language over classic-style dirty-south hip-hop tracks – minimalist tracks with a dense bottom end and the pace of a slow grind. Quite similar in nature to some of his peers – like Oscar-winners Three Six Mafia, to name one (…and remember that Yo Gotti had a song on that movie's soundtrack as well).

And Yo Gotti's absolutely direct with what his songs are about. This is crack-rap, stories from the street. Hustling for dollars is the main subject, with both the pleasures (money, basically, and sex sometimes) and of course the inevitable tragedy – jailtime, betrayal, the death of your friends and family – that comes with it. It's well-trod narrative territory: nothing you haven't seen in gangster films or heard on thuggish hip-hop albums before. Sometimes it seems like there's nothing narratively here that wasn't already in N.W.A.'s "Dopeman." There is a tenderness to the more tragic songs ("25 to Life", for example) which shouldn't be ignored, but also shouldn't be overstated, as more often he's bragging. Or more than tenderness, it's a frankness about the consequences of a life of crime. "U a Gangsta Rite?", he asks to those eager to take on the role, making sure they're really ready for the consequences of playing tough. Yo Gotti is putting himself forth as drug hustler #1, but at the same time stating outright that it isn't a place where you want to be.

Ultimately more compelling than the mean-streets tales, though, is the music itself. It's by no means groundbreaking within the context of southern hip-hop, and he doesn't stand too far out from his peers, but at the same time it's filled with deep, and pleasantly fragmented, grooves and an overall party vibe, still layered with darkness. It's not a earth-shattering album, but an interesting and infectious one at times.