5th Dog Let Loose

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's Flesh-N-Bone greeted the release of this CD at the wrong end of an 11-year jail sentence for threatening a friend with an AK-47, a wrinkle understandably played up for all it's worth with the CD artwork, which features the rapper--you guessed it--behind bars, in chains. 5TH DOG is a surprising and entertaining listen--full of sound effects, imaginative rhymes, syncopated rapping, and fresh-sounding arrangements that are sure to attract even those previously immune to rap's charms. There are even tracks, such as "Way Back," that if it wasn't for the violence and "explicit content" would veer close to pop songs; the aforementioned is a lament for Tupac, Biggie, Big Pun, and the other rap Hall Of Famers who've fallen in the dangerous pursuit of keeping it real. There's a regretful atmosphere undercutting the stock bragging (there's an aside of "playtime is over" at the top of "If You Could See") that gives this set a real depth that's missing from many similar offerings. Stanley Howse (Flesh-N-Bone) is a smart, innovative rapper, squeezing so many syllables out per bar that he's either heavily influenced by Jamaican dancehall, or wants to get as much into each song as he can while he's still a free man.