After years of adding verses to
DJ Premier and
Guru's
Gang Starr,
Big Shug set out releasing his own music, first with 2005's
Who's Hard, and followed two years later, as part of the increasingly impressive roster on New York's Babygrande Records, by
Streetchamp. As with his debut,
Shug gets
Primo to show off his skills on a few tracks (the warm, scratch-friendly "It Just Don't Stop," "Play It," and the bass-laden "Streets Move"), but most of the beats are done by a very able
MoSS, the Canadian producer who's also worked with
Ghostface (whose delivery style
Shug's resembles) and
AZ, among others; they're drum-heavy and clean but still very melodic, like something
will.i.am might do on one of his less creative or quirky days, and fit
Big Shug's rough-edged voice well. The rapper himself generates a decent set of rhymes, focusing mostly on how his skills greatly outweigh those of his competitors (a claim that isn't always substantiated -- it's not enough to just say you're better, your bars have to show that, and as great as the line "you's a coward/A silly duck like Howard" is, it may not be enough to prove verbal domination), but also treading on life in the ghetto ("Hood Like That," "What U Gonna Do"), the troubles of raising a family ("Lost"), and making money ("Legbreakers"). There's enough variability in his themes that his continual boasting and dissing of other rappers doesn't come across as excessive or boring, and though
Streetchamp might not be quite the album
Big Shug declares it to be -- and doesn't compare to
Hard to Earn -- it's a consistent, often clever, set of rhymes set against solid beats, which is more than a lot of other rappers have been able to offer, and presents
Shug as a force to be reckoned with.