Skull Gang

Album Review

With his Diplomats crew at a crossroads and his solo career tied up in label problems, member Juelz Santana had to stake his claim with the help of his Skull Gang crew. Many of the tracks on their self-titled debut come from Santana's 2008 mixtape Takeover: The New Movement to Move With, where they sounded much more compressed. Here, the vibrant production benefits from the wider sound spectrum, with layered tracks like "Aggy" and "Drama Fold" coming through loud and clear. Santana's planned album with Lil Wayne gets previewed on the key track "Problems," while the party monster "I Am the Club" gets into fellow Dipset member Jim Jones' territory with a heavy beat and rock-solid hook. The Auto-Tune effect is employed way too often, but a bigger issue is how this better than expected set of tracks fails to truly introduce the crew, coming off as more of a Santana and friends release than as a proper Skull Gang debut.