Mac – Shell Shocked (7-21-1998)

Posted on Sep 10 in Rapaveli Retroby adminPrint

First thing’s first, this CD dropped on my partners 14 th birthday so much love to my nigga Mark Wilson doin his damn thing over in Iraq. On top of that this used to be one of my niggas favorite No Limit artists so you already know we were amped when this one came out. Me personally I was sort of skeptical, I had no idea that Mac was gonna bring it the way that he did on Shell Shocked. Then again I should have been able to predict it because of his show stealing presence a year earlier on Mr. Serv-On’s “Tryin To Make It Out Da Ghetto.”

I never really expected too much from Mac but his first single “Boss Chick” first drops it makes you realize how much of a lyricist Mac really is. Plus whenever you have Mia X on the track you know it couldn’t go wrong. Mo B Dick’s whirling production coupled with Fiend’s pain ridden hook makes “All You Can Be” a certified hood strugglers anthem. I must admit that “Murda Murda Kill Kill” was one of the dopest tracks of the 1998 summer. To put it plain and simple Mystikal literally murdered the track with that big as Godzilla, here lizard lizard line.

Mac’s true to life storytelling genius is displayed even further on the gun shot laden “Slow Ya Roll.” Super producer KLC kicks some classic 80’s b-boy production as Mac shows absolutely no mercy on the hoes on “We Don’t Love Em.” The late Soulja Slim lends his street genius over an O’Dell beat seemingly produced strictly to his likings on “Can I Ball.” I never really appreciated the message of “Money Gets” when I was younger but these days I seem to pay close attention to what P was saying. As a young millionaire in the making I’m already seeing the fake shit these green rectangles makes people do.

C-Murder’s verse on “Memories” was just as show stealing as the other hundred thousand he kicked on everybody else’s shit over the tank’s two most productive years. Both “Nobody Make A Sound” and “Beef” are prime examples of late 90’s gangsta music that surely influenced some stupid niggas to do some for real gangsta shit. The album’s lat real track “My Brother” has a deep sentimental value to me as it makes me see the love of my blood brother and those other three brothers I have from different mothers.

Mac seemed like he was one of the very few No Limit soldiers who was more focused on lyrical delivery than anything else. I’m sure that he would have made it pretty far in the rap game after his No Limit days but unfortunately around the same time that C-Murder got hit with his murder charge Mac got hit with one of his own. It’s a damn shame how much talent was lost to all the wrong reasons after the tank folded earlier in the millennium. Hopefully Mac can get out some time soon and bless the game with some more of his lyric heavy persona he displayed so easily on Shell Shocked.