Philly Gully and nothin' but. Would you expect anything less from an album with cold steel on the cover? Gunz 4 Hire is as raw as the concrete cracked inner Illadelph streets the album represents. While C. Delores Tucker won't be breaking her neck to run to Funk-O-Mart to pop it in her ride, there's allot of the corner boy crowd that'll rep this thing to the point of success. I assume that's the marketing strategy they had in mind anyway.

Gunz 4 Hire features the posthumously recorded collab from Bullets Mayhem entitled Biggie & Bullets. The all too familiar Philly theme music that played in the background as Rocky did his early morning pushups on his way to tackling Apollo Creed sets the tone for the track lovely and holds up the lines spit from the direction of Bullets. Bullets shows up again on the collab tip only this time with label mate and undervalued rap slinger Gauge on the Rocalike sounds of Untouchable? This thing is a damn collaboration compilation! One of the better examples is Gauge teaming up with the young Ike Turner on Gunz Barkin'. You know how some emcees have "it" and some just don't no matter how hard they try? Well I'm here ta tell y'all that Ike was born with it. I predict big things from this brother in the not too distant future. New Jeru's Mr. Turner also shows flashes of that unbridled passion on the mixtape ready Love It Or Hate It. More tracks and more Philly Gully collabs. Gotta throw out a mention to 1st Ave & Spitz for their grimy, dirty, gritty, ugly, aggressive Back On Down or the review just wouldn't be complete. This is the sound of the 215 streets in Spring 2003.

When Chuck D said Hip Hop was the Black CNN, reporting on what was really going on in the inner cities of America the Gunz 4 Hire stable were obviously paying attention. While this thing needs two parental advisories on it, Hip Hoppers from Erie Ave. to East Camden and beyond will be eating this stuff up like the bags of chips delivered to them all day by Korean hands through bulletproof turnstiles... And if ya don't know, now ya know.

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Review by Funk Wizard Snow
Editor- PhillyHipHop.com
May, 2003