Jay Rock - Follow Me Home

Compared with the late nineties very few West coast artists are shifting millions these days as the 'gangsta rap' scene wore itself out. That's not to say that gangsta rap is dead, albums are still being churned out routinely by the old brigade staying true to what they know best. Jay Rock must have grown up during the gangsta rap boom and stays true to what he knows best with his debut album Follow Me Home, even though he must recognise that the rap game has moved on from the top selling days of Ice Cube, Mack 10, MC Eiht and other LA based artists.

In case you were in any doubt as to Rock's locale following the drive-by intro, the bass and keys of Code Red are recognisably West Coast. Rock's gruff flow sounds like a cross between Game and Xzibit as he describes life in Watts, LA over a range of typically West Coast beats (Hood Gone Love It, Elbows and All I Know Is).

The main problem with tales of Rock's upbringing is that they have largely been heard before, for Rock and Watts read Eiht and Compton, C-BO and Sacramento or Mack 10 and Inglewood. Rock is a reasonably proficient rapper but I don't feel he has enough character to make his subject matter distinctive enough to elevate his music above the competition.

Rock is at his best when he isn't glamorising the gangbang lifestyle, which to be fair he rarely does, but when he deals with aftermath of living that way with sincere introspective lyrics on No Joke, Kill or Be Killed or Just Like Me which is only let down by a weak chorus.
At 18 tracks, the album is too long and contains too much filler, Elbows, Boomerang, I'm Thuggin, Bout That or All I Know Is among others and unfortunately the highlights are outnumbered. Street single Hood Gone Love It, No Joke, previous single All My Life and Black Hippy group track Say Wassup are all worth listening to but probably on a separate playlist.

A promising debut from Jay Rock but he and his 2012-updated West Coast by numbers music is unlikely to lead the to a renaissance of LA hip-hop.

Best guest: Kendrick Lamar

Stand-out track: Hood Gone Love It

Best bars: (Just Like Me)

But ignorance is bliss because them fists are soon gon' turn into a bullet

If the index finger pull it cameras coming for the footage

Channel 9, Channel 11, Aiming Nines, Mack 11

Another baby for the reverend, another casket

Take action in a matter of a second

Nothing matters when you reppin for your turf

Hold it down, have heart - Put in work

That's the moral of the story when you're worried and you're wicked

And your mental never get it

It's a sickness when you kill your own kind

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