VARIOUS ARTISTS
N.O. 2 THE B.R. – RESURRECTION

DJ Hektik and DJ Dow Jones round up several months worth of Louisiana rap on N.O. 2 The B.R., which — as the title suggests — covers its bases from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. It’s a 35-track, 100-minute monster, and while some are nearly unlistenable (even by slapdash mixtape standards), there’s some heat here, especially when it leans on the area’s distinctly bouncy and brassy sound. The big draw is the recently-freed Lil Boosie, whether teaming with C-Murder on ‘Came to Da Can’, 2 Chainz (and Mike Will) on ‘Wuda Cuda Shuda’ or longtime collaborators Webbie and Fox on the soulfully apropos ‘Pray For Me’. ‘Heart Of A Lion’ sees him making throwback nods to Muhammed Ali and Mr. T, but a line like “only thing I’m scared of in this world is catching HIV” is pretty sobering.

Among the cookie cutter tracks and familiar reworkings (Kendall Cloud borrows from C-Murder’s classic ‘Down 4 My Niggas’, Harley Ken and Deezy Cain crib from Luda’s ‘Move Bitch’), there are some vividly drawn lyrical pictures. C-Loc and Lil Phat’s sparse, Scarface-sampling ‘Shoot First’ sneaks up with lyrics like “kill behind gossip / don’t even know for sure / broad daylight, coming out the corner store / left his brains laying next to his Four Loko,” and Gudda Gudda sounds like a heartbroken Big KRIT on ‘Let Me Be Me’: “my life ain’t been nothin’ but pain, never real treasures / body bags, courtrooms, chairs with wheels, stretchers / ambulance, jail cell, STDs tester / colostomy bags, toe tags and sweaters / with our partnas’ faces on ’em, let you know we miss you.” Ouch.