On “Bad Guy,” Hack proves his name is not a literal interpretation of his talent: “I’m fuckin’ deranged, nemesis, criminal gone lyricist/Trickle by the pitiful blemish that’s gone rigorous/Stimulus song flickerin’/Think that we aren’t listening/Please, n--ga, you’d done picked up the wrong instrument.”

The Details

Hack the Mack

Unfortunately, as the CD proceeds, there’s less of this sort of spitfire, and Hack’s retreat to tired and ultimately unadventurous topics (guns, girls and ganja) seems to sap his energy. That is, until the gutter-but-good “Same Work Different Money” and the internal-rhyme-scheme-heavy “Can’t Leave Rap Alone.”

He’s even colder on his excellent send-up of the Notorious B.I.G./Eminem collabo “Dead Wrong”: “Who is this n--ga? Is he American?/Nah, I am human crack, call me Whitney’s embarrassment/N--gas should cherish me, virus, sicker than everything/Aids and lethal injections, mixed with experiments.” Yes, far from hackneyed.