Tarantula

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On Mystikal’s last effort, Let’s Get Ready, his rapid-fire flows and throaty vocal delivery created two chart-busting singles, “Shake Ya Ass” and “Danger,” that became a part of the hip-hop canon for 2000. On Tarantula, Mystikal attempts to duplicate those same sounds and energies with mixed results. “Bouncin’ Back (Bumpin’ Me Against the Wall)” comes off sounding like a “Shake Ya Ass, Part 2” with much less bite, despite the lyrical potshots hurled at Osama bin Laden and the Pharrell Williams hook. Likewise, “If It Ain’t Live, It Ain’t Me” reads like a subpar dance-floor equivalent to “Danger.” A large bulk of the tracks here are forgettable because of Mystikal’s lyrical and thematic limitations. How many different ways can one rap about chasing skirts and boast about sexual prowess? The oversexed rapper juvenalia on “P***y Crook’s” or “That’s the S**t” come off sounding lame. The collaborations with Redman and Method Man (“Get It Started”) and Juvenile (“Settle the Score”)—with the latter track soundly squashing any alleged beefs between the two New Orleans-based MCs’ former camps—Master P’s old No Limit empire, and Cash Money Millionaires save this release from making a fast entry into the bargain bins. Unlike Let’s Get Ready, Tarantula carries all bark and little bite. —Dalton Higgins

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Tarantula is the follow-up to Mystikal’s Let’s Get Ready—a belligerent and powerful affair that saw the MC successfully play off his distinctive, gritty flow against bombastic beatwork. Let’s Get Ready sky-rocketed into multi-platinum territory, so it’s no real surprise that this new joint attempts to go off in much the same way—perhaps too much the same way. Though most of the tunes here are good, nothing really matches the energy and spark of cuts like “Danger” and “Shake It Fast” from the last album.

The Neptunes produced opener, “Bouncin’ Back” is catchy, as are a few other cuts here, but generally the sonic scenarios—production comes courtesy of The Medicine Men (formerly Beats By The Pound, the same guys who used to build bass for the old No Limits crew that Mystikal used to run with) with added sonic scenarios by Rockwilder, Scott Storch, Juvenile and The Neptunes—sound lethargic and pedestrian. The guest MCs don’t do much to gee this LP up either. Butch Cassidy does okay on “Bouncin’ Back”, but Redman and Method Man seem lacklustre on “I Get Started” and no one else is really even worth mentioning. Mystikal himself uses his usual blustering freestyle approach to full effect now and again but like the album itself, he’s mostly talking loud and saying nothin’. —Paul Sullivan