Crooked I – Say Hi To The Bad Guy is one of the hottest lyrical West Coast rap albums from 2002. Each track is sure fire. Ray J’s on damn near every track. Say Hi To The Bad Guy is a West Coast classic.
Crooked I – Say Hi To The Bad Guy was the second album and debut album from Crooked I that was going to be released on Death Row Records in 2002. However Crooked I – Say Hi To The Bad Guy was never released due to various label issues and industry politics.
Suge just wasn’t used to independent releases because he was used to going platinum in the first week of sales. He was used to selling 6 to 7 million records at a time. It would have been hard for him to match his level of sales on Koch Records which was Death Row Records distributor when he got out of prison. Koch Records was a different company back then as it was an artists graveyard. That’s how a lot of executives looked at Koch Records. Even if that was not always the case.
Artist were getting $5 to $6 dollars an album when they had distribution deals with Koch Records during the 2000s. He believed Crooked I’s album would not sell if distributed by Koch Records. So once Suge had figured that out, he decided that he needed to release the Crooked I – Say Hi To The Bad Guy album on a different label to be distributed by a major record label or else people were going to think that he lost it as an executive So he shelved the Say Hi To The Bad Guy album.
One of the other reasons why Crooked I’s debut album Say Hi to the Bad Guy was constantly getting pushed back, in part because it was set to be released after Kurupt’s Against Tha Grain album. That created a timing conflict.
There were nights when Crooked I recorded 4 or 5 songs in a row for the Say Hi To The Bad Guy album. However he did not see much profit off it. There was a lot of passion going from Crooked I during the recording process of the Say Hi To The Bad Guy album.
Crooked I and For the People Entertainment had released Crooked I – Say Hi To The Bad Guy as a mixtape and bootleg themselves in 2002 until Suge Knight and Death Row Records issued a cease and desist order against Crooked I. Only 5,000 copies of the album were pressed and the album was eventually leaked online by For the People Entertainment later on in the decade.
Songs from Say Hi To The Bad Guy were put on to his 2010 album Hood Star, which was released by WIDEAwake. Bits and pieces have been leaked since then. The album was later butchered into an EP called Crooked I – Say Hi To The Bad Guy EP.
Crooked I let us know that Death Row was back on the track called Hood Near You. Darren Vegas produced Hood Near You. His wordplay and lyrical ability improved since the Untouchable album. He uses much more advanced vocabulary on this track with words such as “hallucinogenics”, “biochemist”, and “physicist”.
Here is one example of how his wordplay and lyrical ability improved since he recorded and completed the Untouchable album.
Spit game with the language of a menace
I’m dangerous as a dentist, high off hallucinogenics
Mind of a biochemist
Smart as a nuclear physicist
Guess who’s back? Death Row. People are sayin’ Crooked I’s too laid back. However we all know that’s not true. Crooked I is married to carrying chrome and married to chasin’ paper even if it’s running quick as Marion Jones. He’s wearing a Smith & Wesson like it’s part of my dress code. He’s dressed to kill. That’s why they call it a wardrobe. The boss is back with enough beat in the back to snap California off the map.
Somebody’s flow came iller? Well, that’s rare. Just let Tha Row make skrilla now. That’s fair enough. Crooked I is still that tyrannosaurus stalkin’, walkin’ thesaurus. He’s often strapped in black. Crooked I is as as a dentist, high off hallucinogenics as he is also has the mind of a biochemist whois as smart as a nuclear physicist.
If he gets pissed off, he’ll pistol whip you for your Walkman. Put this in and bang till it’s finished. He’s so sharp you could use him as scissors. The Uzi is vicious. Crooked I’s album is comin’ to a hood near you. Death Row is in this muthafucka. Everytime you see that logo, scoop that shit up. It’s fire. You know what the fuck I’m talkin’ about.
Hood Star explains why Crooked I is a hot lyricist. The song is pure fire.
You’re fucking with a nigga hot as a flamethrower. That is Crooked I. He shoots up the Range Rover. He blows some of your brain on one of your dang shoulders. Deranged when he bangs on ya.Fucking niggas up beyond recognition.
Crooked I is in the neon Expedition wishing for collision. He is quick to predict the way you gon’ swerve. Crooked I is a mixture between a banker and a baseball pitcher for the way I throw money at them take it off strippers. He is faded off liquor while breaking off chippers. Better run with the wind or catch a 100 uppercuts right under your chin.
Crooked I explains why you do not want to fuck with him on Ya Really Don’t.
Ya really don’t wanna fuck with Crooked I. He keeps them pistols in the stash no matter what. So you don’t want to clash with him. These niggas out here talkin’ about Crooked I everyday. But if they come at him, he’ll have to blow them niggas away. They’re nothing but rats stuck in the trap. Crooked I is killin’ you niggas over oil like President Bush. That sherm oil.
So if you don’t want you heartbeat to stop, then walk away before his gun pop.Leave him alone.
That known cat is gonna leave a niggas back blown. A nigga won’t even make it back home. His gat cracks bones.
You don’t want to go up against the West Coast nigga that squeezes the most triggers. Crooked I has fucked the most bitches and touched the most riches. The 4’s are on switches. The Benz’s so vicious.
We stay ghetto for life, my nigga. See you niggas really don’t understand what we doin’ at Death Row. We trying to organize them gangsta hits to flood the industry with and if you with that shit then cop everything with the Death Row logo on it.
Crooked I tells us that it feels so damn good when you’re so damn hood on the track So Damn Hood. He brought back that aggressive lyrical gangsta rap with this track.
Boss Me Up is another one of the heaters for that album which went unreleased for whatever the reasons(s) may/might have been. This was another one of the illest songs that were fire.
I rate this album 5/5*****!!
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