Album Review: Chilldrin of da Ghetto

As expected, the three newcomers who make up C.O.G. get a little help from their more experienced friends. Several of their self-title debut's 15 tracks feature better-known artists like Soultre, Mack 10, Juvenile and BG. Unfortunately, there is little that any of them can do to help the Chilldrin's situation. While C.O.G. has the lingo and feel of urban America, there is little beneath the surface. The album is a blur of repetitive basslines that bleed from one track to the next; the rhymes are lousy, and the braggadocio and self-references that make contemporary rap such flamboyant entertaining falls flat here. It is difficult to distinguish the three group members except that they all fall off rhythm. As a result, the majority of the tracks on the album resemble each other too closely. Two tracks stood out, mainly because they resembled other artists' work. Anyone who heard Missy Elliott's summer release will be furious upon hearing C. O. G.'s futuristic "Intro." But if nothing else, C. O. G. has a good sense of what they should be. Indeed, they have most of what it takes to become successful musicians. They have the clothes and most of the right friends; the music is all they are lacking. F+