Mobstability II: Nation Bizness

The difference between the 2008's Mobstability II and 1998's Mobstability is right on the cover. Ten years prior it was "Twista & the Speedknot Mobstaz," but Mobstability II rightfully sports "Presents" since Speedknot members Liffy Stokes and Mayz are running the show here, with Twista stopping by for the occasional — and all successful — guest shot. The end result is a 100 percent thug album, unrelenting with the cocaine and gun talk and unwilling to cross over with any radio-friendly material. A narrow as that is, Liffy Stokes and Mayz have waited ten years to front their own full-length and are both hungry and well-rehearsed, making the single-minded material sound fresh from start to finish. When "Cognac n Zesbud" offers "I'm trying to get rich like I'm Oprah/Get a Bent with a chauffeur/Lay back and party on the French Riviera like I'm Hova," it's the down-low Chicago street noise of 1998 all over again, as exciting as before and as gutter as ever. Even if there are a hundred tracks named "Dopeboy," the performance and hook of this one make it memorable, and even if China White Productions member Steven Dukes produces well over half the album, all of his beats are welcome. Anyone who was unimpressed with the Mobstaz's work on the original Mobstability will find them as shallow and unnecessary as before, but fans of the first album or old-school Twista before he went slick will be happy to see these three returning to the cold hard streets.