Godfather Buried Alive

Shyne is currently serving 10 years in prison on gun charges, but hey, if Tupac can release albums from beyond the grave, why can’t Shyne do it from behind bars? Buried Alive is as wildly inconsistent as you’d expect of a project piecemealed together the way this one was. Most tracks were recorded before his 2001 sentencing, with guest vocals and production grafted on later. “Quasi O.G.” is among the best of these, with Shyne spitting troubled family history and ghetto conspiracy theory over a dark, eerie sample from Bob Marley’s “No More Trouble.” The Kanye West–produced “More or Less” and “Behind the Walls,” which features Snoop and Nate Dogg, don’t want for hooks but lean too hard on Shyne’s lockdown for instant street cred. (We get it—you’re in prison.) “For the Record” is flawed but fascinating: His muffled vocals were apparently recorded via telephone from the clink and his rhymes struggle to find the beat, but his angry, vindictive snarls suggest that while prison isn’t rehabilitating him, it’s probably honing his rage.