This extended play was released on May 17th this year. Sheek Louch is one of those rappers who’s pretty good, but he ended up being a little overshadowed by the other members in his group because I guess they stood out more to people. I don’t think he’s as good as Styles P or Jadakiss, but I definitely still like him a lot. He’s certainly put out some trash music in the past, but he has a few good projects as well. If everything goes according to plan, I’ll be posting my ratings of the entire LOX discography later today. If not, I’ll have it up some time tomorrow inshallah. Anyway, even though I think Sheek is a good rapper, I can’t say I was really looking forward to this project in particular. The first Beast Mode EP is legitimately the worst project I’ve ever heard from a member of the LOX. That level of quality is frankly unacceptable, especially from a member of a legendary group. Honestly, I don’t think it’d be too harsh to call it one of the worst projects I’ve ever heard. The second Beast Mode project was thankfully much more tolerable, but it still wasn’t very good at all. I was hoping that the upward trend would continue, and that this would be a decent EP, but I was keeping my expectations in check. After listening to the project, I pretty much feel the same way that I did after hearing the second Beast Mode EP. It’s mediocre. There are a few songs on it that I enjoyed though, including the opening track, On That Shit.

This song is performed by The LOX, and it’s really dope. I actually dug the production a lot, and I thought the first verse from Sheek was very good too. The simplistic hook wasn’t really that great to me, but it wasn’t too bad. It was a bit repetitive, but it was fine. I enjoyed Styles P‘s verse, but Jadakiss really stood out the most to me on this one. He sounded like a fucking beast on that shit. His voice was so awesome. I mean, it always is, but it sounded more menacing on this one than it usually does for some reason. Maybe it’s because of the production. So yeah, I thought this was a surprisingly good way to start the project. It’s a dope track. I also enjoyed New York Shit too, which featured Havoc & Fat Joe. At this point I feel like it’s pretty well known that I do not like Fat Joe at all, but his verse on this track was okay. I could’ve done without him, but he didn’t ruin it. I thought the production from Jimmy Dukes was pretty great, and the first verse from Sheek was dope. The hook he performed wasn’t really that good, but it was fine I suppose. The one aspect that actually makes the song stand out the most to me is surprisingly the verse from Havoc. I never really considered Havoc to be a top tier MC, but he had the best verse on this track to me. Not that I think Havoc is a bad rapper. Maybe I don’t give him enough credit. I just always had more interest in whatever Prodigy was doing. I come to Havoc for production. He really impressed me on this song though. That verse was great. Obviously the song’s not perfect since I didn’t really love the hook or the final verse from Fat Joe, but overall I think it’s pretty good. Although it did feel really long for some reason. It felt much longer than it actually is. Anyway, the only other song that I enjoyed was the penultimate track, The Fiend. That actually ended up being my favorite song. The production from Dayzel the Machine was great, and I thought Sheek’s first verse was dope. I’m really glad there’s no hook on this song too. There’s just a short break between the two verses. Honestly, there’s really not a single aspect of the song that I didn’t like. I don’t think it’s an amazing, must-hear song, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It technically features someone named Heroin Pop, who I guess is supposed to be playing the role of the fiend. He doesn’t actually rap on the song. He just kinda says shit in the background and does the ad-libs. It was actually a very nice touch in my opinion. It was funny. He sounded a lot like Danny Brown actually. Sheek Louch kinda sounded like Ransom at some points to me. Like, when he said “misery love company still,” he sounded exactly like Ransom. It’s not something that really affects my enjoyment of the song. I just thought it was kind of interesting. So yeah, I think that song’s really dope. I guess I’ll talk about the other songs now. I didn’t like the other tracks at all. The second track, Good Good, is actually really terrible to me. The production was kinda nice, but aside from that it wasn’t good. The content just really didn’t appeal to me at all. It’s pretty much just a Pornocore track. I wasn’t feelin’ Sheek’s verse, and the featured verse from Uncle Murda was even worse. It was super vulgar. He was just rapping about fucking girls in their asses, and getting his ass ate, and pulling his dick out of girls’ asses and putting it in their mouths. I’m not tryna hear that kinda shit, man. I really don’t know how hearing someone rap about that is enjoyable to anyone. That’s not even the worst part of the song though. That hook is fucking awful. I guess the producer, DJ U-Neek, thought it’d be a good idea to chop up the audio of the video in which Cardi B is talking about having a warm pussy and a deep throat, so you just hear her talking about having a “wet mouth” in the background every time the hook comes on. It sounds awkward as hell. The song is terrible. The song with Whispers wasn’t quite as bad as the aforementioned Uncle Murda collaboration, but it was still pretty wack to me.

I thought the Trap beat from Black Saun was decent, but that’s really not what I want to hear any member of the LOX spitting over. That sung hook from Whispers was really bad, and I didn’t care for Sheek’s melodic delivery on the first verse. I guess it was fine lyrically, but it’s just not pleasant to listen to for me. The second verse from Whispers sucked. Honestly, I don’t really like Whispers that much. I’ve enjoyed tracks on which he was featured in the past, but usually when I’m listening to a song that features him he ends up being the worst part of it. I’m never happy to see a feature from him. So yeah, I thought that song was bad. That’s far from the worst track on the project though. No, the worst song was actually the closing track, Alone.

Goddamn, that song is wack af. It’s a shame because I actually kinda liked the beat, and I thought the first verse from Sheek was cool lyrically. However, this song has easily the worst hook on the entire project. I never wanna hear Sheek Louch sing ever again because it was unbearable on this hook. I didn’t care for the melodic delivery he was using for the first verse either, even though it was kinda cool lyrically. The second verse kinda sucked though. So yeah, I thought that song was awful.

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Overall, as I stated earlier, I think this project is pretty mediocre. It’s not as unbearable as the first Beast Mode EP, but that really isn’t saying much. I’m glad I checked it out because I’ll check anything LOX related out. I got a few good tracks out of it, which is pretty much all I was expecting to be honest. I’d say if you’re a hardcore LOX fan you should give it a shot, especially since they all show up on the first track. I don’t think the average Hip Hop listener will be too interested in this though. It’s not very good.

Favorite Song: The Fiend
Least Favorite Song: Alone

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