At the time of his death, Eazy-E was completing a comeback album that was intended to restore his street credibility, which had taken a savage beating in the early '90s. Str8 Off tha Streetz of Muthaphu**in Compton, the album he left unfinished, does show more ambition than his previous It's On. Collaborating with his former N.W.A partners MC Ren and Yella, Eazy-E sounds revitalized, but the music treads over familiar gangsta territory. Although the majority of Str8 Off tha Streetz is by the book, occasional tracks like the surrealistic "Tha Mutha******in Real" and the menacing "Ole School ***t" illustrate Eazy-E's greater potential. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rovi