19 Naughty III

iTunes Review

With the follow-up to 1991’s massively successful Naughty By Nature, this New Jersey rap trio accomplished a nearly impossible feat. They refused to pander to their mainstream audience, came out with a harder, heavier piece of work, and against all odds, made it the best-selling album of their career. “Hip Hop Hooray” is the rejoinder to “O.P.P.” but it’s a stronger song in every way — less pretty, less nice, but no less catchy or accessible. The rest of 19 Naughty III knocks like a bat in the back of the head. Naughty could have easily made a pop-rap album and raked in the cash, but instead they built something for the diehard rap fans. “Hot Potato,” “Daddy Was a Street Corner,” “Take It To Ya Face” and “Ready for Dem” are definitive New Jersey rap songs, as hard and cold and gritty as the winter sidewalks in East Orange. Lots of groups talk about “keeping it real,” but this album embodies the idea. Treach summarizes the prevailing attitude in the tersely titled “The Hood Comes First”: “If radio can’t flow ‘cause there’s no goody-good verse, tell ‘em the hoody hood comes first.”