Capital Punishment

Heavyweight Champion
by: tom reiter

Big Pun has been around the industry for some time now.  He did a couple single tracks and some duos on other albums, but was never signed to his own record deal until now.  In order to do this, he would battle any MC he could until he won the attention of Fat Joe, his producer.

On his debut album, Big Pun puts out a pretty good number of tracks, featuring a wide assortment of well known artists.   His roots as a freestyle, battle MC shine on most of the tracks on the album, like on "Super Lyrical" featuring Black Thought of The Roots.  Here he shows how he's more of an underground rapper.  But then on the next song, which is a hit on the radio, "Still Not A Player," featuring Joe, Pun shows how he can make it in the mainstream as well.  This is a really tight song.  He also shows his more laid back style on "Punish Me" featuring Miss Jones.

Capital Punishment also includes "You Ain't A Killer," which was also on the Soul In The Hole soundtrack.  "Carribean Connection" feat.  Wyclef is a sweet song.   It has a simple plucked guitar sample and an almost Carribean beat, which gives it the perfect East Coast meets Carribean feel, hence the title.  "Glamour Life," featuring Fat Joe and Terror Squad, "Capital Punishment," feat.   Prospect, and "Twinz (Deep Cover 98)," are more hardcore songs.   "Tres Leches (Triboro Trilogy)" feat.  Prodigy and Rebel INS is really good track.  It's kind of a mix of all three artists' styles.

Capital Punishment is a very good album put out by a talented artist, and I suggest those of you that like East Coast with more of an underground feel pick it up.  True hip-hop fans will see that I am justified in giving it 4 out of 5. 15-Mar-1998 4:00 PM