The Rehab

With everything from bankruptcy to a beef with 50 Cent and the G-Unit crew hanging over his head, Young Buck should have plenty to say in 2010, but most of The Rehab had been stuck in the can for two years before this official release appeared. As a result, this short effort — once labeled a mixtape although it feels more like an EP — picks up right where his late-2006 effort Buck the World left off, swaggering out of the speakers and dropping typical Buck stingers like “Never left, took a vacation/Kanye/I’m lookin’ for a bad bitch/Beyoncé” during the game-claiming “This Is Mine.” The pro-pot “Smoke Our Life Away” brings more of the free and freaky Buck with its off-kilter chorus, but “Hood Documentary” returns him to his stoic best as he lays out his side of the G-Unit story. “Ya Betta Know It” is just as unforgiving, and when he introduces “When the Rain Stops” as “summertime drop top shit” it’s entirely true, coming correct with day-off rhymes such as “Breakfast, yes it’s the morning blunt/I get a couple more in me then we goin’ to lunch.” Only issues here are the run time and any expectations that this is his grand statement. It’s not, but it’s solid as far as sideline releases go, and the Buck-heads will be grateful these lost cuts are now readily available.