Mystikal Albums (7)
What The Critics Say
It's downright strange to think that the freakish screwed and chopped sound (here it's the less-used chopped and screwed) has made it to the major labels. Think about what it must be like for the khaki and button-ups at Jive when they try explaining the genre to chain-store music buyers. "It's the hits of Mystikal, but they're slowed down to a crawl and skip a lot. It's really weird, but gangsta kids love it when they're drinking cough syrup. You'll need plenty of units in your Southern stores." DJ 007 of the Chop Shop handles Mystikal's bangers with less of a heavy hand than anyone from the druggy Swishahouse would. As much of a trip as it would be to hear Swisha's Michael Watts drown the hyper thug into a screwed, bottomless pit, DJ 007's faster style of screwing fits Mystikal's bouncy and brash numbers better than expected. As displayed on "Danger (Been So Long)," the remixer likes to get wicked with the scratching, working the turntable in the same gruff manner the rapper works his lyrics. Whooshes of filters and phasers turn "Hypno" into a face-melting experience, but party numbers like "Bouncin' Back" and "Jump" retain their energy, groove, and glitz with a less dragging tempo. Released while the rapper was incarcerated, Mystikal's Chopped & Screwed is a rarity in the genre, a record that has its eyes more than a quarter of the way open. Serious screwheads are going to have to adjust to non-ominous and non-freakish moments, but it's hard to think of a better introduction to screwed and chopped for the cautious. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The coast-to-coast success of "Shake Ya Ass" thankfully didn't tame Mystikal too much. On Tarantula, Mystikal's first album in the wake of his commercial breakthrough in 2000, he's just as wild as ever -- a blunt-smokin', big truck-drivin', ass-slappin' James Brown for his generation with no apologies and few pretensions. One thing has changed with Mystikal over the years though: With each successive album, he's been graced with continuously improved production. Longtime collaborator KLC continues to improve here, crafting many of this album's liveliest moments, songs like "P***y Crook" and "Big Truck Driver" that find Mystikal at his least mannered. The Neptunes return with three excellent productions, one of them, "Bouncin' Back (Bumpin' Me Against the Wall)," attempting to duplicate the energy and appeal of the last song the duo produced for Mystikal, "Shake Ya Ass." Elsewhere, two of the industry's hottest producers of the moment, Rockwilder and Scott Storch, contribute some excellent tracks. Mystikal really couldn't ask for better production, overall -- all the tracks have bouncy, ass-shakin', club-ready beats, and nearly all have quite catchy hooks. And since Mystikal rises to the occasion, delivering rhymes that are just as rousing as the beats, he has recorded his second great album in a row. Like Let's Get Ready, Tarantula realizes the potential Mystikal's early work for No Limit promised -- the potential to be one of the most successful and unique, yet still unrefined and uncompromising, rappers in the game. In fact, this album seems so fully realized it's difficult to imagine Mystikal taking his music to yet another level without changing his style. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Mystikal distances himself even further from his past with Master P's No Limit camp on Let's Get Ready than he had done on his previous album, Ghetto Fabulous. And perhaps not surprisingly, the further Mystikal distances himself, the more impressive his work becomes, as here he becomes the 21st century ghetto James Brown, exploding with more exuberance and energy than humans are supposed to have. This album's blazing lead single, "Shake Ya Ass," draws the connection between Mystikal and Brown well, illustrating the wild rapper's knack for hollering out seemingly spontaneous signature howls and other odd sounds that just sound straight-up funky: "whatcha self," "show me whatcha workin' wit," "here I go," and so on. Besides the limitless charisma that seeps out of Mystikal's loud, rude rapping-meets-shouting style of vocal delivery, the album also benefits from the production and songwriting variety that No Limit was never able to accomplish -- with the sparse funk of the Neptunes-produced "Shake Ya Ass" again functioning as a perfect example. This variety also appears on songs such as "Come See About Me," when the album's superstar spars with his female equivalent, Da Brat. It's an engaging rhyme battle, particularly when Mystikal shouts out his little taglines such as "What's up, whodi!" The album-closing "Neck uv da Woods" is another highlight, this one essentially an OutKast track featuring Mystikal rather than the other way around. The rambunctious rapper had always been No Limit's most impressive rapper, and here on Let's Get Ready Mystikal shows you precisely what he's capable of if given the opportunity to shine, as he sheds the trappings of Master P's budget-quality confines and loudly establishes himself as one of the Dirty South's best. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
With Unpredictable, Mystikal showed signs of breaking away from the No Limit murk of gangstas, guns, and money. Instead of continuing in this direction with its follow-up, Ghetto Fabulous, he decided to stick with No Limit's directionless recycling of beats, ideas, and themes. Like any of the label's 1998 offerings, there are glimmers of promise buried amid all the repetition, but what stands out is the monotony of the music and the lyrics. Since Mystikal is a better rapper than many of his No Limit cohorts, Ghetto Fabulous is more listenable than the average record the label puts out, but the music never challenges him to reach new heights. Consequently, the record feels flat, despite a few moments where Mystikal is able to truly show listeners what he's made of. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Mystikal's debut album, Mind of Mystikal, was an uneven collection of street-oriented G-funk, hampered equally by unimaginative songs and cheap production, courtesy of the No Limit team. Between that record and its follow-up, Unpredictable, both Mystikal and No Limit improved exponentially, resulting in a record that was considerably stronger than its predecessor, even if it was far from perfect. Like Mind of Mystikal, Unpredictable is essentially bare-bones, hard-hitting, vulgar gangsta rap. There's nothing new in the beats or in Mystikal's rhymes, but the execution is much better than before. Even though the album runs much longer than it should, dedicated hardcore hip-hop fans will be able to find enough highlights to make wading through the murk a worthwhile task. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Like many hip-hop albums of the mid-'90s, Mystikal's Mind of Mystikal is rooted in Dr. Dre's G-funk. While nothing in the production is particularly original, Mystikal's rapping is distinctive. Where many G-funk rappers are laid-back, Mystikal is hyper, zipping between obscure pop culture references and standard gangsta boasting. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Before Mystikal enlisted in Master P's No Limit army, he recorded for Big Boy, another New Orleans label and one that foreshadowed the Dirty South explosion that was about to take place in the late '90s. Mystikal delivers his rhymes with frenzied finesse here, not quite as aggressively as he would later but certainly as fluidly. This self-titled effort doesn't come close to matching Mystikal's later work, not even his No Limit albums, as the production is of budget quality and the songwriting similarly lacking. Even so, the stronger moments like "Ya'll Ain't Ready Yet" and "Not That Nigga" impressed Jive Records, who re-released this a year later in 1996 as Mind of Mystikal. That re-release is the one to get, since it appends "Here I Go," an amazing song that blows away anything here and one that quickly became a Dirty South anthem. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
