Mac - Shell Shocked

[OHSNAP!]

I was probably the only Mac Stan in school, though all my friends were NL stans since 95-96 lmao. I do agree with many of the arguments throughout this whole post.

I definitely love SS more than WW3 but I feel that WW3 was more efficient, consistent, and had more overall lyrical/conceptual depth.

What it didn’t have was the same inexplicable NL energy (probably beats by the pound) that SS had.

I always felt SS could have been trimmed down just like “give it to em raw”. I also feel, regardless of the bloat, that SS just hits harder. Less of the skillful finesse found on WW3, more of an audio sledgehammer.

Both albums feature some of my favorite songs of all time. There was definitely a period of personal growth between albums that I also loved.

If anything, I feel that the lyrics of WW3 would appeal to a more mature introspective me. The grimy fun found on “shell shocked” would appeal more to a emotional high energy me.

I still listen to “Can I Ball” daily. My favorite Mac song is “assassin nation”. His verse on “We riders” made me a Mac Stan.

SS is my favorite, of the two, but WW3 isn't far behind it. It’s like arguing between “Nevermind” or “in utero”, Illmatic or it was written”. I can’t truly say which is best, only my favorite. I did feel that the highs of SS were higher than WW3, and Shell shocked was a great exhibition and introduction to Mac. But I also feel like WW3 was a potentially greater foundation for artistic longevity.

Good job bruh

SS made me a Mac fan, one of the first NL albums I bought after giving it a spin at the record store (remember those days? ) and loving some of the songs instantly

I agree that SS has crazy highs (Be All You Can Be, Can I Ball, Slow Ya Roll, The Game, Beef, Callin' Me), but some filler too (Soldier Party, Nobody Make A Sound, Camoflauge Love), also like Mac said in a 1999 interview, mixing/editing wasn't done properly because of time issues (he named Meet Me At The Hotel specifically)

WW3 sounded more crisp and smooth. The bass on Genocide, guitar on That's Hip Hop or all the different snares n hi-hats, well done. Mac brought more introspective lyrics, more maturity and a smarter approach in general, besides the threatening cuts with P and Magic (thanks to the Pastor Troy controversy, CMR cheap shots n general dislike against NL because of their success and lack of quality control in 99). SS had the better single/video tho. My bruh loved Father's Day since he grew up without 1. Can U Love Me is one of my favorite songs OAT

 

[Alvin]

Good job bruh

SS made me a Mac fan, one of the first NL albums I bought after giving it a spin at the record store (remember those days? ) and loving some of the songs instantly

I agree that SS has crazy highs (Be All You Can Be, Can I Ball, Slow Ya Roll, The Game, Beef, Callin' Me), but some filler too (Soldier Party, Nobody Make A Sound, Camoflauge Love), also like Mac said in a 1999 interview, mixing/editing wasn't done properly because of time issues (he named Meet Me At The Hotel specifically)

WW3 sounded more crisp and smooth. The bass on Genocide, guitar on That's Hip Hop or all the different snares n hi-hats, well done. Mac brought more introspective lyrics, more maturity and a smarter approach in general, besides the threatening cuts with P and Magic (thanks to the Pastor Troy controversy, CMR cheap shots n general dislike against NL because of their success and lack of quality control in 99). SS had the better single/video tho. My bruh loved Father's Day since he grew up without 1. Can U Love Me is one of my favorite songs OAT

One of KLC's most menacing beats

Soldier Party to me was a N.O. type of jam, nobody make a sound was dope to me and hit, camouflage love could've been a single. The sequencing on that album was amazing imo.

 

[I'm Blackman]

Whole album was flames.

 

[Alvin]

Where’s my tag breh

my bad, it's hard to tag you bc of your name

 

[OHSNAP!]

One of KLC's most menacing beats

Soldier Party to me was a N.O. type of jam, nobody make a sound was dope to me and hit, camouflage love could've been a single. The sequencing on that album was amazing imo.

Look who dapped you

 

[Alvin]

I was probably the only Mac Stan in school, though all my friends were NL stans since 95-96 lmao. I do agree with many of the arguments throughout this whole post.

I definitely love SS more than WW3 but I feel that WW3 was more efficient, consistent, and had more overall lyrical/conceptual depth.

What it didn’t have was the same inexplicable NL energy (probably beats by the pound) that SS had.

I always felt SS could have been trimmed down just like “give it to em raw”. I also feel, regardless of the bloat, that SS just hits harder. Less of the skillful finesse found on WW3, more of an audio sledgehammer.

Both albums feature some of my favorite songs of all time. There was definitely a period of personal growth between albums that I also loved.

If anything, I feel that the lyrics of WW3 would appeal to a more mature introspective me. The grimy fun found on “shell shocked” would appeal more to a emotional high energy me.

I still listen to “Can I Ball” daily. My favorite Mac song is “assassin nation”. His verse on “We riders” made me a Mac Stan.

SS is my favorite, of the two, but WW3 isn't far behind it. It’s like arguing between “Nevermind” or “in utero”, Illmatic or it was written”. I can’t truly say which is best, only my favorite. I did feel that the highs of SS were higher than WW3, and Shell shocked was a great exhibition and introduction to Mac. But I also feel like WW3 was a potentially greater foundation for artistic longevity.

WW3 doent have the 1998 no limit filler issues.

also, the beats on WW3 may not be as good, but theyre a better fit for him than most of the shell shocked production.

shell shocked = hot album
world war 3 = classic album

Shell Shocked was really good then, and I have fresh ears for it now. No revisionist history either. This album was also regarded as a top tier NL release.

WW3 was dope too. Probably one of the only 1999 NL releases that ended up being nice even without BBTP production. Only Carlos Stephens from BBTP had beats on there.

Where’s my tag breh

Ok here's a question Fiend's There's One In Every Family vs Street Life
I personally like his No Limit debut, I can spin that and Shell Shocked whenever.

 

[987654321]

Ok here's a question Fiend's There's One In Every Family vs Street Life
I personally like his No Limit debut, I can spin that and Shell Shocked whenever.

That one has always been difficult for me, but I’ve always preferred something about “street life” over the former. I know the mixing/mastering is trash lol. To me, it seemed more of fiend being able to be himself on that album.

 

[OHSNAP!]

Ok here's a question Fiend's There's One In Every Family vs Street Life
I personally like his No Limit debut, I can spin that and Shell Shocked whenever.

Majority gon prefer TOIEF because it's 98 NL. But I'd go with SL, more introspective (like WW3), more personal (not a NL compilation), more of Fiend's side, better sequencing, great guest features (Mystikal, Holloway, Mia). Loved most of the songs, Walk The Line was meh, but not bad at all, Truth Is was too short of course, sad they cut the Mac verse on Trip 2 London (still waiting for someone to release/upload the holy grail collectors edition from mp3.com: Fiend – Street Life (1999, Collector's Edition , CD) )

TOIEF is a NL classic too doe, so much heat, wasn't a fan of Big Timer, Do U Wanna Be A Rider, For The NO and Do U Know cuts. All I Know, Live Me Long, Take My Pain, Only A Few, Streets Ain't Safe, Slangin', Walk Like A G >>>>>

 

[NO-BadAzz]

I will say that (in real time) I wasn't too much of a fan of Mac, I wasn't very familiar with Mac before his album came out, but funny and very strange, that album SS was played heavy when I was attending my HS when it came out. Tank Dogs, NO Party, Murda Murda Kill Kill, I can remember being played at all of the parties attended. I remember every day playing that album but I would really only play those 3 songs (not really going through the album, I would literally just play the soulja song or the song with mystikal on it, the very 1st week of having the album but I wasn't really sold on Mac as the artist Mac, maybe because I was not familiar with him. He was on a few soulja songs that I would just skim through when he came up to rap his verse. Like why this dude always saying he's Mac, not Bernie though Lol. Him on BG album, I heard his verse but I just thought he was just another rapper.

I felt, his album SS came out at a particular/interesting/strange time lol, I believe it came out before Master P's album or something, the line up was crazy and it was somewhat an overload of good music from the tank.

His album (in real time) caught my attention because of Mystikal. Remember when folks use to skip straight to the song Mystikal was on and that became their favorite song, in this instance, the song Mystikal was on was a favorite song on the album and was played by everybody. That was the song that had to be played when pulling up to the spot/party/dance or parking lot pimping, You had to have that song playing, (that's what I thought to believe). This is how I really got into that Mac album. Even Can I Ball, I would gravitate more to Soulja Slim's verse.

What really got me into Mac, I was at a high school party, and the DJ played "We don't love'em" in his set and every dude and chick was yelling the hook, except me, because I never heard that song, I had the CD, but I only went to the Murda Murda song and the lead single, boss chick and NO Party, lol, I hear the song and hit my boy while we bucking and he's chanting, and I'm like is that on Mac CD , he was like nikka yea that's Mac, that's on the SS CD breh and I was , he like yea breh. We get out of the party, get in the car, I skimm str8 to the song, only to find out it was like number 5 or 6 on the CD, I turned that shyt up loud and had the 2 12's beating down the parking lot, tweeters blasting, then I got upset when he was getting into another 16 and the song went off, I was like


We don't love them became the song that I pulled up to the school parking lot every morning




WWIII that was a gem, I remember working and that album came out around the time Magic's album came out I wanna say, Magic's 2nd album, Thuggin, and I remember my coworker was like man that Mac album is nice, at that time, I was shifting heavy towards Cash Money, and he was like breh that Magic and Mac album are nice, the Mac album is one of those album where you have to sit down and listen, and I didn't understand what he meant by it.

At the time, our music and how we listened to music down here was at an up tempo pace, either hyped or a feel good tip, the artists we listened to down here were always putting music out that was to get us, the listener hyped, bucked up, gave us something to ride to heavy or something for us to dance too...Mac WW3 album was the opposite, it was a "calm" album in a sense.

I feel that SS was more along the lines of what we were use to listening to down here, whereas WWIII was just a smooth, calm, made you really think, type of album. I listened to the album on a day where I was having some issues, just riding around the city and that album hit a breh soul, Can you love me, and battle cry, I really needed that in my life at the time breh. That album will always be my gem, Mac spoke some real shyt on that album. And by my surprise nikkas were heavy on that album. I didn't feel that P pushed it heavy as much, but I was also surprised that the city embraced that album, like really embraced because as I mentioned, we don't really listen to "calm" albums like that... Maybe a "calm" song here or there, we aint trying to hear all that preachy shyt, but Mac's album really wasn't preachy but much more of lacing game and allowing us to see how shyt was presented to us. He rapped it in a way where it was still jamming and it had messages in the music where a nikka could really see and use to improve their life.

You can tell what I mean, towards the end of the song "Battle Cry" Mac said "oh you too cute to sing that shyt" he knew his audience wouldn't be on no shyt like that. He was really saying "on you too cute to take in this game" or listen to shyt like this.
I would always laugh to myself because I would see nikkas singing the hook but they'll look around or hmm it low to themselves lol.

Cops and Robbers was so incredible, A movie could be written off those verses and to know that he spit the same verse on BG's nikkas in Trouble cut, was even more impressive.

I will always place WW3 in my Top 5 hell Top 3 albums off the Tank.

Why do we live when we are born to die

 

[Wacky D]

Ok here's a question Fiend's There's One In Every Family vs Street Life
I personally like his No Limit debut, I can spin that and Shell Shocked whenever.

I was gonna make a thread on that next.

Street life was a bit better than fiends debut

 

[Alvin]

I will say that (in real time) I wasn't too much of a fan of Mac, I wasn't very familiar with Mac before his album came out, but funny and very strange, that album SS was played heavy when I was attending my HS when it came out. Tank Dogs, NO Party, Murda Murda Kill Kill, I can remember being played at all of the parties attended. I remember every day playing that album but I would really only play those 3 songs (not really going through the album, I would literally just play the soulja song or the song with mystikal on it, the very 1st week of having the album but I wasn't really sold on Mac as the artist Mac, maybe because I was not familiar with him. He was on a few soulja songs that I would just skim through when he came up to rap his verse. Like why this dude always saying he's Mac, not Bernie though Lol. Him on BG album, I heard his verse but I just thought he was just another rapper.

I felt, his album SS came out at a particular/interesting/strange time lol, I believe it came out before Master P's album or something, the line up was crazy and it was somewhat an overload of good music from the tank.

His album (in real time) caught my attention because of Mystikal. Remember when folks use to skip straight to the song Mystikal was on and that became their favorite song, in this instance, the song Mystikal was on was a favorite song on the album and was played by everybody. That was the song that had to be played when pulling up to the spot/party/dance or parking lot pimping, You had to have that song playing, (that's what I thought to believe). This is how I really got into that Mac album. Even Can I Ball, I would gravitate more to Soulja Slim's verse.

What really got me into Mac, I was at a high school party, and the DJ played "We don't love'em" in his set and every dude and chick was yelling the hook, except me, because I never heard that song, I had the CD, but I only went to the Murda Murda song and the lead single, boss chick and NO Party, lol, I hear the song and hit my boy while we bucking and he's chanting, and I'm like is that on Mac CD , he was like nikka yea that's Mac, that's on the SS CD breh and I was , he like yea breh. We get out of the party, get in the car, I skimm str8 to the song, only to find out it was like number 5 or 6 on the CD, I turned that shyt up loud and had the 2 12's beating down the parking lot, tweeters blasting, then I got upset when he was getting into another 16 and the song went off, I was like


We don't love them became the song that I pulled up to the school parking lot every morning




WWIII that was a gem, I remember working and that album came out around the time Magic's album came out I wanna say, Magic's 2nd album, Thuggin, and I remember my coworker was like man that Mac album is nice, at that time, I was shifting heavy towards Cash Money, and he was like breh that Magic and Mac album are nice, the Mac album is one of those album where you have to sit down and listen, and I didn't understand what he meant by it.

At the time, our music and how we listened to music down here was at an up tempo pace, either hyped or a feel good tip, the artists we listened to down here were always putting music out that was to get us, the listener hyped, bucked up, gave us something to ride to heavy or something for us to dance too...Mac WW3 album was the opposite, it was a "calm" album in a sense.

I feel that SS was more along the lines of what we were use to listening to down here, whereas WWIII was just a smooth, calm, made you really think, type of album. I listened to the album on a day where I was having some issues, just riding around the city and that album hit a breh soul, Can you love me, and battle cry, I really needed that in my life at the time breh. That album will always be my gem, Mac spoke some real shyt on that album. And by my surprise nikkas were heavy on that album. I didn't feel that P pushed it heavy as much, but I was also surprised that the city embraced that album, like really embraced because as I mentioned, we don't really listen to "calm" albums like that... Maybe a "calm" song here or there, we aint trying to hear all that preachy shyt, but Mac's album really wasn't preachy but much more of lacing game and allowing us to see how shyt was presented to us. He rapped it in a way where it was still jamming and it had messages in the music where a nikka could really see and use to improve their life.

You can tell what I mean, towards the end of the song "Battle Cry" Mac said "oh you too cute to sing that shyt" he knew his audience wouldn't be on no shyt like that. He was really saying "on you too cute to take in this game" or listen to shyt like this.
I would always laugh to myself because I would see nikkas singing the hook but they'll look around or hmm it low to themselves lol.

Cops and Robbers was so incredible, A movie could be written off those verses and to know that he spit the same verse on BG's nikkas in Trouble cut, was even more impressive.

I will always place WW3 in my Top 5 hell Top 3 albums off the Tank.

Why do we live when we are born to die

I got a 10 inch sub in mine and my shyt def beats, I could imagine with a 12. Did you ever see the boss chick single on tv or hear it on the radio, what was your opinion of it?

 

[Doin2Much Williams]

"When i woketed up... all i had was some nuts thang..."



.

 

[NO-BadAzz]

I got a 10 inch sub in mine and my shyt def beats, I could imagine with a 12. Did you ever see the boss chick single on tv or hear it on the radio, what was your opinion of it?

"in real time" I was excited as hell. Came home from school and saw it for the first time. I was really impressed with how Mia X was looking.

It would come on "the box"

Like I said, his album was sandwiched between the MP - Last Don album and Snoop Dog's 1st album on the tank

All what I'm saying is in 'real time' Mac's video for me wasn't really appreciated, it was a blur because, MP had his video playing non stop on "The Box" - (Thinking About You) and that song took off, then his album truly dominated that summer of 98, plus the news of Snoop's album coming out in August was over-shadowing Mac's album momentum in a sense.

I think Kane & Abel second album came out too around that time, summer, so that's why I said that Shell Shocked album came out at a funny time for me.

P's "Thinking about You" single hit the airwaves before the album dropped and that single was picking up fast, then P album dropped, adding to the fact that it was his "last" album, folks played the hell out of it, and the fact that it was a good ass album, "War Wounds" destroyed the club scene and party scenes down here along with the other tracks. That's why I stated in my earlier post that Mac's album almost got lost in the shuffle, but the best thing that he had going for him, was the club cuts, party songs and that song "We don't love'em"

The Murda Murda Kill cut helped too, with Mystikal being on it.

 

[Alvin]

"in real time" I was excited as hell. Came home from school and saw it for the first time. I was really impressed with how Mia X was looking.

It would come on "the box"

Like I said, his album was sandwiched between the MP - Last Don album and Snoop Dog's 1st album on the tank

All what I'm saying is in 'real time' Mac's video for me wasn't really appreciated, it was a blur because, MP had his video playing non stop on "The Box" - (Thinking About You) and that song took off, then his album truly dominated that summer of 98, plus the news of Snoop's album coming out in August was over-shadowing Mac's album momentum in a sense.

I think Kane & Abel second album came out too around that time, summer, so that's why I said that Shell Shocked album came out at a funny time for me.

P's "Thinking about You" single hit the airwaves before the album dropped and that single was picking up fast, then P album dropped, adding to the fact that it was his "last" album, folks played the hell out of it, and the fact that it was a good ass album, "War Wounds" destroyed the club scene and party scenes down here along with the other tracks. That's why I stated in my earlier post that Mac's album almost got lost in the shuffle, but the best thing that he had going for him, was the club cuts, party songs and that song "We don't love'em"

The Murda Murda Kill cut helped too, with Mystikal being on it.

How was Kane & abel received both by you and by the city/people you hung around.

 

[NO-BadAzz]

How was Kane & abel received both by you and by the city/people you hung around.

Another album that came out at a funny time and when I say funny I don't mean it in a bad way, more so in a way where's it was very little time to really get into the album (in real time) because you were still bumping the other album that came out. Folks who lived in real time back can maybe attest to this: You played a regular album (if it was good) for a strong 2-4 months, many of the labels back then would release albums every 4-6 months. No Limit was dropping albums every 2 weeks, so as a consumer and a fan of NL, if an album was really banging and if it was an album from the A list artist, you would be playing that particular album for a good 1-2 months, before you moved on to another NL album.

The C-lister artist, such as a Mac, or Kane & Abel at the time, fell victim of this because, back then the exposure of artists was not like it is now. If the artists weren't on a lot of "radio" songs or just wasn't flat out cold/tight or on a cold or tight song that folks really played, you really did not know who they were. I lived in the city and barely knew of Mac, even though he was around since a kid, Kane & Abel first album was the reason why I heard of them dudes, they really weren't on a lot of projects from NL that I can recall or maybe on any songs that were heavy played with them being on it at the time where a lot of folks played, either at school, parties, parking lots etc or just talked about in general.

IF you have a time-line with albums coming out such as: Last Don (with it being P's his last album), I think Soulja Slim album came out too in that time span, I think Fiend had come out in May, Mac SS dropped in July and then you had the arrival of Snoop and he was getting on cuts and his album was to come out at the top of August, those C-lister artists that came out between the months of June - August would have somewhat got lost in the shuffle IF they didn't have a catchy song that folks played at parties, Super Sundays, etc. Most ppl are going to play the A-list artist album, when in this case was P (again I'm speaking on how it was setup back in 1998)

But as a NL fan, I skimmed through the album when I got it, and played the songs with Mystikal, which was "Watch Me" and I believe that they had another song with him on it. The lead single barely got in burn on the radio, I think I may have seen the video on "the box" a few times.
The people in the city, copped the album again I believe off the strength of it being off the tank.

I think it was a good marketing thing for P, because he sandwiched those C-list artists release dates in between A-list artists album release dates, if you really think about it from his way of thinking, Nobody really outside of NOLA, maybe Louisiana really knew who Soulja Slim, Kane & Abel, and Mac really were back in real time. I'd say maybe more knew who Slim, from a regional stance, Kane & Abel too, but from how P was looking at it, nobody really knew outside of that realm and he wanted his fans to copped those C-list artists album, so if he dropped his album first, I guess he figured whoever came behind him, his fans would copped their albums too, and then you have Snoop, who is another A-list artist to keep the fans focused on the tank. That worked.

P dropped his album, the city copped it, then Kane & Abel dropped, Mac -SS, and then Snoop came, we all copped those albums. Now playing these albums as I explained is a different element.
As a C-list artist (in real time) my attention span for your album was short vs a well known A-list or B-list artist

So that's how it was for me and my folks, we copped it because we knew who these artists were, but if they didn't have a cut off their album where it was cool to play at a party, club, Super Sunday, the lake, etc, then we were back playing the A-list artists