My Soul

By the late '90s, Coolio began looking like one of the only rap artists that mattered. With Public Enemy out of the picture, the deaths of Tupac and B.I.G., KRS-One doing Sprite commercials and every body else too busy dodging bullets to make music, Coolio found himself the default king of Hip-Hop at the close of the millennium. For his part, it seems Coolio would prefer the role of good-humored Court Jester. more...

Coolio's stream-of-consciousness lyrics often follow disparate tangents to their logical (or illogical) conclusion, with rhyming the only prerequisite. Even so, he manages to get a couple of messages across, such as his comments on the duplicitous nature of the drug smuggler on "Nature of the Business" and his ode to true friends; "Homeboy". The serious nature of these topics is undercut by left-field touches like '70s R&B vocal group The Dramatics crooning "The Devil Is Dope". It's on the all-out party tunes "One Mo", "Throwdown 2000" and "Can I Get Down 1x" that Coolio's soul shines brightest. Rap, after all, began as party music, and King Coolio seems bent on returning it to those glory days.

The Source (9/97, p.211)
- 3 Mics (out of 5)
- "...MY SOUL finds the Compton native sounding almost parental, while commenting on virtually every aspect of life from a somewhat distant point of view....Make no mistake, his bread and butter remains his danceable grooves with chantable, catchy hooks..."

Rap Pages (8/97, p.98)
- "...Coolio understands that hip-hop demands that one constantly and consistently prove himself....Coolio's crowning moment arrives via the fantastic `anti-drug' song..."

Vibe (9/97, p.234)
- "...Now here's a man who knows how to put the fun back into funk....MY SOUL is the type of lightweight rap album that rakes in enough dope to help foot the bill for the genre's other, more complex, records..."

Rolling Stone (8/21/97, p.106)
- 3 Stars (out of 5)
- "...packed with Coolio's trademark biting sense of humor, tasteful cribbing of classic pop-soul melodies, smooth, low-end '70s-style grooves, old-school hip-hop sensibilities and, well, more cautionary tales..."

NME (8/30/97, p.51)
- "...if there is one factor linking all of Coolio's work, it is his unfailing grasp of a commercial tune. The fact that he is now applying this to sombre, soul-searching raps and soaring classical melodies without losing the plot is proof enough of the man's still-sharp talents..."

Entertainment Weekly (8/22-8/29/97, p.134)
- "...when it comes to commercial hip-hop, Coolio's rhymes flow around the beats with authority, and his elastic funk hooks are sure dance-floor fillers." - Rating: B+