Live from Hell

After complaining that Diplomats co-chairs Jim Jones and Juelz Santana were watering down the crew's sound, Hell Rell's second release of 2009 is the hardcore, true gutter proof this Dipset soldier would have taken the group in a different direction. Released on his own Money Maker imprint, Live from Hell is Rell on his own with no help from Jones, Santana, or any of the superstar collaborators that weakened the punch of his 2006 effort, For the Hell of It. In other words, you wouldn't mistake this for a major-label release, but it's well above mixtape standards with clean, completed tracks and an overall flow that's sensible. After a dramatic opener that deserves a more distinctive title than "Intro," the funky "Turn the Party Out, and the horror movie soundtrack "So Cold" provide a one-two punch of club worthy material before the album goes underground with those frantic, confrontational numbers so identifiable as Rell. More ambitious moments come when "Exterminate" riffs on TV pest control commercials, and when the just-plain-misspelled and G-Unit-esque "I Heard Their Looking for Me" closes the album with an Eminem-like production, but you'll have to guess who the beatmakers are because the packaging offers no answers. Still, it fits with the unpolished and uncaring attitude of the set, and when it comes to scruffy, gruff instigators like Rell, fans always prefer the more unfiltered efforts.