Tony Yayo
Thoughts of a Predicate Felon
Interscope
50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and Young Buck have all released solo albums recently, not to mention the G-Unit album. Now we’re presented with Thoughts of a Predicate Felon from one of the original, formerly jailed G-Unit crew. Expectations are high. But unfortunately for Tony Yayo, it’s the tracks on which members of G-Unit appear that this album really pops — without them Yayo isn’t anything special. When 50 and G-Unit broke out, they were something fresh and new. Now that we’re on the fourth solo album (fifth if you count The Game) from this crew, it’s played out. There’s not much left — it feels like they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel now. If there was something here, something more than the typical gangster shit, it might be OK, but there’s not.
—Trevor Savory