8Ball has been saved as much by this new album as he has by the currents upon which it arrives. That said, his reawakening on “Life’s Quest” - easily his most mature album - is plenty notable. 8Ball & MJG’s ill-fated detour on Diddy’s Bad Boy Records was a bust, and 8Ball has never made much of an impact as a solo star. Still, the shift of hip-hop’s power centers to the South hasn’t been a boon for 8Ball, who has lately seemed as if his best years were behind him. In the rest of the country that duo gets slightly less shine than other pioneering Southern acts like the Geto Boys and UGK, but down South it holds equal standing. As part of 8Ball & MJG, 8Ball was one of the formative figures in Southern rap. It’s taken a long, roundabout path for him to arrive here. Know that having babies ain’t the only way to share your loveĪnd I know my music may confuse you but you gotta be strong Most moving are those to his only daughter: He has five, and each of them gets a few lines.
First is “The Price,” split into two parts: one about a young woman torn between daytime good behavior and late-night mischief, and the other about a young man from rough circumstances who turns to the streets - “Little dude got his nerve up and hit the block/ Streets hot, all he had to do was pick a spot” - only to be eaten by them: “I wish it was a happy ending to my short story/ Pow, he never knew what hit him/And every day I know his family miss him.”ĨBall takes an inward turn on the next song, the title track, framed as an address to his children. Near the end of the album three striking tracks come back to back, each narrative driven and each poignant.
It’s casual, and it breathes easily.ĨBall does too, declaiming with clarity and poise, never rushing his lines, something he once did to great effect. LAST month the veteran Memphis rapper 8Ball released “Life’s Quest” (eOne), an album that, from a distance, appeared relatively low profile but up close proves to be modest and warm in a way that feels like a surprise.įirst there’s the production, which is contemplative and sometimes lush but never brittle or bombastic, as is the vogue for so much Southern hip-hop of the day.
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