X-Raided - Psycho Active
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Music CD Cover
Artist: X-RaidedEdition: Music CD
Format: Explicit Lyrics
CD Release Date: 1995-04-16
Music Label: Black Market Records
Soundtracks:
- Still Shooting
- Call tha Guardz
- Who's tha H--?
- Crazy Than a Mutha F---
- Every Single B----
- Fuckin Wit a Psycho
- B---- Killa
- Everybody Killa
- Shoot Cha in a Minute
- That's How My Trigga Went
- That Sickness
Free Music Notes for Psycho Active
Free Music Review: The "mind of a psycho" is more predictable than you'd think
Hit: 2 Stars
X-Raided's 1992 debut album "Psycho Active" introduced the world to the Sacramento MC who would later gain some notoriety as a rapper who really lived the life he rapped about. Today he is serving an extended sentence for mistakenly killing an old woman in a raid of a house that he claims thought belonged to someone else. Since incarceration, he has recorded rap albums entirely over the phone. I can't judge X-Raided as a person, but "Psycho Active" isn't as shocking an album as X-Raided seems to hope it would be. His verses take the listener into the mind of a killer, and most of his songs are simple murder narratives. All of his verses either concern crime or violent sex. However, the music doesn't have much of a disturbing quality because it doesn't usually match the lyrics. Unlike his friend and collaborator Brotha Lynch Hung, who found a wide audience based on his marriage of psychotic lyricism and dark, eerie music, the production on "Psycho Active" is very ordinary gangsta rap beats from '92, even a little upbeat, and the sound quality isn't always great. There are some better than others, but for the most part it's quite regular. X-Raided has a basic flow that at times sounds like Bushwick Bill, and he delivers some okay hooks over the course of the album. Although his narratives are vivid and sometimes entertaining, he is a completely unapologetic killer, and he lacks any conscience for his deeds. Some of his verses come across as generic and unoriginal, and he's never going to wow you with a verse or performance. "Psycho Active" is a decent album with a handful of worthwhile tracks on it, but for the casual gangsta rap fan, it can be passed upon.
Following a brief intro, the album opens with "Still Shooting," a song that sets the stage for the album with threatening verses over a solid early g-funk beat. "Call tha Guardz" is a pretty good storytelling track, where he recounts a crime spree, using upbeat production for a musical backdrop. Some may not like this song for its sexism, but I thought it was one of the better tracks on the LP. "Who's tha H...?" has a terrible hook and is a basic song about mistreating women, and "Crazy Than a Mutha" kind of sounds like an old Ice-T track, it's okay. "Every Single B..." continues what was started on "Who's tha H...?," ("The only women I respect / Are my sister and my mother, disrespect, I break ya neck...") and it's skippable. "F...in' Wit a Psycho" is a six-minute study of a killer, using a familiar sample from Grandmaster Flash's "The Message." Despite the content, this song is quite upbeat and not so menacing, it's actually one of the better songs. "B... Killa" brings more sexual and violent lyrics with an average beat, it's boring and forgettable. More gun-talk can be found on "Shoot Cha in a Minute," which is far too long, and "That's How My Trigga Went" is okay while brief. The album closes with a stronger six-minute posse cut, "Tha Siccness."
In 1992, X-Raided hoped to capitalize on the breakthrough albums by his West Coast peers such as Ice Cube and Ice-T, and "Psycho Active" is far inferior to any of the classics released during those years. It is a strictly underground, hardcore gangsta rap album that possesses all of the traits that made people want to stop rap at this point in history. No one ever wanted to stop the political raps of Ice-T or street philosophy of Ice Cube, but the grim, biased murder narratives of X-Raided might be too much for some. In any event, I'd recommend this album to devoted fans of West Coast gangsta rap, because it is fun in some parts, but for most listeners looking for something of this nature, I'd recommend Brotha Lynch Hung's Season of da Siccness, an album with a similar concept and much more effective execution, or maybe even some of X-Raided's later albums, which are a little more lyrically insightful.
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