Tony Yayo is a 48 year old rapper from Queens, New York who would go on to form a group called G-Unit with his childhood friends 50 Cent & Lloyd Banks up until his incarceration when they started to blow up. He eventually dropped his solo debut Thoughts of a Predicate Felon in the summer of 2005 under G-Unit Records & Interscope Records to mixed reception, which was followed up with 21 mixtapes. However, he’s looking to celebrate 4/20 a few days early by dropping his 22nd tape.
“Boxes” annoyingly start off with this messy beat boasting of him moving pounds of kush on Instagram whereas “So High” featuring Berner & Wiz Khalifa combines an acoustic guitar & some hi-hats so they can talk about getting stoned together. “Smoking Gas” continues to ramble on regarding the weed he smokes being the most potent over an cloudily underwhelming instrumental while “Block Work” featuring Uncle Murda unites G-Unit Records’ only remaining artists for a melodic gangsta rap track.
J.Sos’ verse on “Where’s the Blunt?” was the only feature of the 4 that I didn’t care for at all even if things sonically make a turn for atmospheric boom bap territory leading into “She Wanna Get High” swapping out the kicks & snares in favor of hi-hats again talking about going on a cannabis tour with his bitch for the rest of their lives. “Smalls & Depths” continues to emphasize the cloudier elements talking about getting on planes high & being worldwide than local.
“Kill ‘Em with Success” might have the absolute worst hook throughout The 4:20 Tape, weakly singing about the inability of getting people to stop hating on him & using his prosperity as a way of revenge until “I Woke Up Today” returns to the boom bap talking about getting blazed wherever he goes no matter of it’s overseas or on the west coast. “30¢ a Bag” however takes up the last couple of minutes talking about being zooted in the red light district.
There are only a small handful of songs I like off Thoughts of a Predicate Felon & would consider Tony Yayo to be G-Unit’s weakest link much like how Silkk the Shocker was when TRU was during No Limit Records’ heyday 3 decades earlier, but I certainly would’ve enjoyed The 4:20 Tape a lot more than I did in actuality if this was 2012 & I was still in my freshman year of high school. The production’s subpar & all the features outrap Yayo like I would’ve expected them to do.
Score: 2/5
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