Am I My Brother's Keeper

Like every other No Limit release, Kane & Abel's second album, Am I My Brother's Keeper, is cookie-cutter gangsta with pretenses of being "underground." If underground means an album littered with profanity, violence, and drugs, Am I My Brother's Keeper fills the bill, but if it means moving the music forward, then it fails miserably. Not that it's a terrible album -- it's just bland. A handful of cuts have slamming production and engaging rhymes, but for the most part, it just finds the No Limit production crew Beats by the Pound and the predictable host of guest rappers going through the motions. And those motions just happen to be the same motions that every No Limit soldier goes through -- namely, loping bass, lazy beats, photocopied songs and clichéd rhymes. It's the kind of record that sounds good if you're a fanatic or are unfamiliar with all the other albums in this style. Kane & Abel are competent rappers, but it makes no difference either way -- these backing tracks could have been used by anybody on No Limit, and since there are so many guest spots, almost every cut sounds like it could be on any No Limit album. It's an utterly anonymous, faceless record that is interchangeable with everything on the label...but that's what No Limit fans have come to expect.