El Chapo

Tony Yayo continues to drop quality crime rap on an independent level, not caring at all about big-budget videos, radio spins, or crossover R&B collabos. On El Chapo (named after infamous Mexican kingpin Joaquin Garcia Loera) he serves up ten tracks that combine reference-rich wittiness with stark, streetwise depictions of the criminal world. The production here is appropriately dark and sinister, a fitting match to Yayo's grim rhyme schemes. Mobb Deep, Desperado, Mike Knoc, and others lend a hand, while standout tracks come in the form of "Queens Anthem," "Thousand Grams," and the piano and machine gun laden "Body Bag," sporting quotable verses like "when it come to beef/I squeeze on targets/my hands bloody like Rocky in that meat market."