Savage Life 2

iTunes Review

The follow-up to Webbie’s Trill Entertainment debut, Savage Life, lacks the devastating focus of its predecessor, but isn’t an ounce shorter of potent Southern flavor. The strength of Savage Life 2 is the total union between Webbie and Trill in-house producers BJ and Mouse on tha Track. As live snare cracks whip the beat of “Six 12’s” and the 808 bass detonates beneath “Independent,” it becomes clear that Webbie is a rapper synchronized to his producers. Even when the rhymes are weak, the song as a whole is usually a triumph of attitude and atmosphere. Standouts include “Just Like Me,” “Doe Doe,” and the Manny Fresh-produced “I Know.” And even as Webbie is criticized for being generic, “I Miss You” is the ultimate rap anomaly: an unabashedly vulnerable song about monogamy. How many Southern street rappers are man enough to pull a line like this: “Girls'll walk up on me flirting’, I be telling ‘em ‘Nah I'm chillin’ / Hug you ‘til I go to sleep just to squeeze you like my lil' pillow.”