Show Ya Grill

On his third solo album for Redrum Records (and fourth overall if you count the first Die Hard Organization album), talented Memphis, TN, Dirty South auteur Gangsta Pat again proves his talents by doing virtually everything: rapping, producing, keyboards, guitar, bass, mixing, and anything else he can imagine to credit himself for in the liner notes. His ability to handle this broad scope of duties effectively proves to be even more impressive, although it's debatable whether he's a better producer than he is a rapper. Unfortunately, talent doesn't necessarily imply originality, and Gangsta Pat struggles to do anything particularly inventive here. Both the production and rapping on Show Ya Grill emulate popular Dirty South motifs at the time of its release in late 2000, though his inclusion of guitar into the sporadic drum machine beats is admittedly engaging. During the many self-serving moments such as "Interview #1" and "Commercial #2" it starts to become increasingly apparent that Gangsta Pat's strengths lie more in his ability to create a commercial product rather than creative music. He's essentially making trendy music and doing it in an efficient manner, just as he'd been doing annually for nearly a decade (reprising two of his classic tracks, "I'm tha Gangsta" and "Shootin' on Narks," just in case you forgot how long he'd been in the game).