Take a Look Over Your Shoulder

by Leo StanleyWarren G's debut album was a refreshing, soulful variation on G-funk, but his second album, Take a Look Over Your Shoulder, is one of the most predictable and tired entries in the G-funk canon. As always, the record is impeccably produced, filled with deep grooves and slow, funky beats, but the music never does anything adventurous. Even if the music is predictable, it can be fitfully enjoyable, which can't be said about Warren G's lazy rhyming. None of his lyrics raise above the perfunctory level, and occasionally, they sink so low as to be embarrassing, as on the completely misguided cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff." From an artist who once seemed so promising, it's a disheartening turn of events.