The Truth Hurts

by Matt ConawayIt has been a full decade since ED O.G. and Da Bulldogs made their initial splash, with the under-appreciated Life of a Kid in the Ghetto (which spawned Yo MTV Rap favorites "I Got Too Have It," "Bug-a-Boo," and the moralizing classic "Be a Father to Your Child"). Though the phrase is thrown around liberally, it is safe to call his return a comeback. After all, his reclamation project The Truth Hurts appears eight years after Ed, and Da Bulldogs were given the pink slip by Mercury Records. While a few clumsy tracks are created to meet current fads, such as the Swizz Beatz-like electronic keyboards of "On Dogz" and the horribly misplaced posse cut "Last Word," which is an attempted club track gone awry. The producer-by-committee approach (Nottz, DJ Spinna, Dialek, and Roddy Rod) Ed implements, works when things are kept simple ("Extreme" and "Too Much"). This is most evident on the Pete Rock produced "Situations" and the Premier laced "Sayin' Something," where ED delivers his strongest vocal performance: "alcohol and weed is my vices/to see my daughter smile is priceless/I leave the nicest lifeless/return like Christ in a crisis/take this American pie/and distribute out slices." Will hip-hop's now largely pretentious fanbase re-embrace the man who put Boston on the map? Probably not. And as he states on "Situations," he has a pretty good idea why: "It ain't about how you flow/its about who you know/and who gon' get behind you with dough to make you blow."