Drag-On: Opposite Of H2O

Like Master P, another hype-driven hip-hop phenomenon, producer Swizz Beatz knows how to churn out the occasional undeniable single (DMX's "Party Up," Jay-Z's "Money, Cash, Hoes," Mya's "Best Of Me"), a talent that helps hide the fact that his music is intolerable in album-length doses. Drag-On is the latest from Beatz' Ruff Ryders camp and, in the spirit of all good cross-promotion, he's been the beneficiary of endless shout-outs on other Ruff Ryders releases, as when DMX insisted on "No Love 4 Me" that he "only fucks with Drag-On 'cause he spits the flames." Drag-On does indeed spit the flames throughout Opposite Of H20, but only if "spits" means "endlessly recycles" and "the flames" means "tiresome gangsta-rap cliches." Rooted as always in the tinny, monotonous, synth-heavy production of Beatz (who produced more than half the album), H20 finds Drag-On and a slew of Ruff Ryders (Lox, DMX, Eve) engaging in tedious rounds of unimaginative oral violence. There isn't much of interest here: "Groundhog's Day" finds Drag-On experimenting with a slowed-down, more conversational flow, while "Life Goes On" deals with his relationship with his father over an uncharacteristically nodding, insistent Swizz beat. But such moments are rare, as much of the surrounding material is grim, boring, and redundant. Drag-On gets off the occasional clever line, and there are times when the rapper's id-run-amok shtick is so over-the-top it's almost comic. It'd be a lot funnier, however, if Drag-On had any sense of comic timing, and if it weren't buried under so much tiresome posturing. The Ruff Ryders treatment has hamstrung artists far more interesting than Drag-On (Lox, DMX, Eve), so even if he weren't so one-dimensional, he still wouldn't stand much of a chance.