Review Summary: While not saying much, C-Mal is the best rapper out of Florida.
Florida, a state known for its beautiful beaches, hurricanes, and shark attacks, is probably one of the only states, along with North Dakota, Maine, and Connecticut, to name a few, that has failed to produce as single rapper with any talent. From the city that has the WORST rappers throughout history, Miami (see, Vanilla Ice, Trick Daddy, Trina, Rick Ross, Plies) to the irrelevant, wannabe pools of Tampa and Orlando. About the only thing in Florida that would tear up a mic is a hurricane if it hit a recording studio. That is, until underground Floridan rapper/producerC-Mal stepped up. A wild child outta the Sunshine State presents to us, Earned My Stripes. Up until now, it seemed as if Frosted Flakes were illegal in Florida.
C-Mal is not necessarily a gangsta, but just extremely violent. His lyrics never fail when it comes to advocating violence and robbery, but don’t necessarily falter in the lyrical quality department either, “I’ll crack ya head, like an egg on a table,” “Play these hoes like the court, I pick and roll/Then I give and go,” “I hit ya with a punchline that’ll break your nose.” But he does fail on occasion, “I’m sick of this sideways talkin’/I turn my gun sideways now it’s sideways talkin’/I’m all blind chalkin’/Niggas like to rap/So you know I keep the strap/Got the strap up in my lap.” C-Mal’s love for drugs, robbery, and violence culminate (particularly violence) when C-Mal says, in a nutshell, that he would kill his own family and eat their brains. And while he would in all likelihood not do this, his energy gives way to lines like these. His voice and flow suffice, but it’s his energy and hard delivery that highlight his actual rapping. Because of this, C-Mal can pull off rapping over beats that belong to styles that are overused. Crunk beats with wailing siren synths like It’s Beef and It’s Getting’ Ugly and club beats like Earned My Stripes and Niggaz Is Hoes conform perfectly to C-Mal’s style. He even pulls off a good one on the rock hop beat of Heavy Metal. The production, while typical, works.
Despite the easy listen-ability of this thugging crunk album, it’s like lettuce, it’s mostly water. C-Mal gets more crunk than Lil Jon and the Ying Yang Twins combined, but adds some gangsta to it. That’s basically it.
