To be frank, although I enjoyed Scorcese's Mean Stretts, the film did not leave a lasting impression on me. This does not mean that the acting was poor, rather the script was somewhat simple and unpolished. Scorcese took a lot more time on Taxi Driver, and this is apparent throughout the entire film. To begin with, the music score by Herrmann compliments the tone of the movie perfectly and conveys a feeling of loneliness and drifting. Secondly, the strength of DeNiro and Keitel's acting has improved considerably.
I don't want to give an explanation of what happens in the movie, rather to present an inidividual understanding. Many have dismissed Taxi Driver as a film which goes nowhere, and have called it too artsy. My interpretation differs. Certainly, it is not a unique film, but the feelings of loneliness and social awareness that DeNiro brings to his role are interesting. DeNiro may be thought of as a modern day Steppenwolf-a man completely alienated from his surroundings. Note, for example, the scene where he sits in the cafe with his collegues. His inability to communicate at even the most superficial level demonstrates his alienation from his surroundings, but also arouses the sympathy of the viewers.
Taxi Driver is unique in that the Scorsese did not hesitate to include racism in the movie(recall the scene when Bickle leaves the cafe and throws some menacing looks at a black man passing by). To see a film that is not concerned about making people happy and being politically correct is refreshing. Also the portrayal of the corrupt and superflous candidate is amusing.
Essentially, Taxi Driver is one of the most slept on films of the 1970's. Although it made a big impact at the time of its release, the touchy subject matter made it difficult for TV stations to air it to a home audience.

Following the success of his thesis project "Who's that knocking at my door", Scorcese returned in 1973 with Mean Streets. Like a lot of other of Scorcese's films, Mean Streets explores the catholic guilt of the main character(Keitel) while drawing a contrast to another(DeNiro).
Keitel is near perfect in his role. In most other films, the audience would hardly consider Keitel a protagonist. He runs numbers, wacthes strippers, and does not "love" his girlfriend. However, when compared to Deniro's Johnny boy or some of the other characters in the film, one can't help but admire his altruism. In Mean Streets, Keitel plays the only role he is capable of playing well: A man stuck in two different worlds; In this case the world of clubs, dark alleys and violent street corners and the other more peaceful and disciplined world he strives for.
I don't care much for DeNiro's character, so I will not comment much on him, however it is only fitting that I reccomend some other films for Kietel fans on fans of this genre. Bad Lieutenant is the best place for any Keitel fan to start, but it is certainly not for the faint hearted. Taxi Driver also stars Keitel, but DeNiro is the main character. These films both tell the story of a man who is so fed up with the turmoil he observes every day on the streets, that he takes a road which eventually results in his own destruction.

B.G. achieved a certain amount of commercial success with his platinum album Chopper City in the Ghetto. It's follow-up Checmate is a completely different album. Tose looking for flashy cuts like "Bling Bling" might be slightly dissapointed. The album is perhaps the grimiest I have heard in a long time and it is not intended for the faint hearted.
With beats that don't reach for commercial acceptance coupled with B.G.'S dark and blatant rhymes, this album is a novelty as far as Cash Money albums go. Tracks like "Gun Slinger" and "Problems" are often quite frightening. However, Gizzle is succesful when adopting the not-so-violent approach on cuts like "Press One" and"U know how we do".
Quite simply, Checkmate is the best album released from the Cash Money camp in a while. Warning:This album aint for everybody!

I was never really a big Silkk the Shocker fan, but I had to apllaud him for his 2nd album Charge it 2 da Game. Unfortunately, after Made Man No Limit fell off. Silkk is quite simply a copycat. There is not a unique track on the album. The tracks seem to be copied from previous Cash Money albums. Silkk annoys me because sometimes he is trying to be a thug and on other occasions he is preaching nonviolence and doing boy-girl collabos. Which one is it Silkk?
The only real rappers on No Lmit were C-Murder, Mac, and Soulja Slim. Unfortunately C-Murder and Mac are on lock down and Slim is no longer with No limit. You should hear Slim's new album Years later a few months after. He said that he saw Silkk in a victoria's secret catalogue! P should give it up. He can't survive without Mac and C-Murder.

Following the damn near perfect Give it 2 em raw from 1998, I thought that Slim might have become wack like the rest of No Limit. Fortunately this was not the case. Slim goes back to the streets with "Get your mind right" but is more introspective on songs like "Jacket". Silkk the Sucker sounds horrible compared to Soulja Slim(as a matter of fact so does everybody else except Trennity and Krazy!). Unfortunately C-Murder and Mac are nowhere to be found on this album. Obviosly Mac was on lockdown at the time and C-Murder was busy working on C-P-3.COM.
Soulja Slim is the kind of artist who can make somebody else's album sound tight. He was truly the most underrated rapper on NL. That wack cat P became interested only in his family(Silkk and Romeo) and forgot about hot artists like Slim and Krazy.
I want to talk about P for a minute to show readers what kind of a person he is. Back in 1998, C-Murder found Magic and signed him to Tru-Records(C's own label). Following the commercial success of Mgic's solo "Sky's the limit" P realized he could make money off of Magic and took him from his lil brother C-Murder. He stole from his own brother! Thats part of the reason C left No Limit and part of the reason Slim left. P is a manipulative scheming man who pretends to be a family man whereas in reality he is a money hungry creature. What goes around comes around!

By the middle of 99', the streets were a bit skeptical about No Limit after dissapointing releases from Master P and Silkk the Sucker. Their best album of the year, Mac's World War 3, came at the end of the year.
Unlike most NL albums, there is a certain synergy here. The top-notch production coupled with Mac's first-rate flows give the album a certain ambience which was absent in their prior releases. Whereas Shell Shocked was directed to the clubs, World War 3 is a cynical album which explores the treachery and deception which comes from being on the streets. On the tear jerking "Best Friends", Mac discusses a friendship gone bad: "I made a promise to your momma when we were only 12, told her I'd deliver you from evil and keep you alive and well. I guess I've got to dissapoint her but you leave me no choice".
On "Like Before" Mac pushes Ghetto Love to a new limit. A limit which most R&B singer could not reach. There are other potent songs such as "Just another thug" with C-Murder and "Eyes of A Killa". Mac's World War 3 is probably the best album to be released from NL ever(except maybe C-Murder' Life or Death).

Posiibly one of their best albums, this was release back in the day when the No Limit family consisted only of Master P, C-Murder, Silkk, Mr.Serv-on, Mia X and Big Ed. Each one of these rappers has a unique style except maybe Silkk, who is the pretty boy of the group. Master P should have kept his style like this-pure underground music. Again we see excess favoritism to Silkk the sucker. He appears on 11 of the 19 cuts whereas C-Murder is only on 4 cuts. In terms of raw talent, C-Murder is clearly superior to Silkk, but he was always less marketable.
Anyway, the good tracks are 2,4,5,6,8,11,12,13,15,18,19. Trust me if you like true hip hop, this is for you.

Well Master P does not deserve credit for finding Soulja Slim considering Slim was C-Murder's discovery to begin with. He appeared on the Down South Hustlers album under the name of Magnolia Slim. There is no doubt thta Slim is one of the best rappers on No Limit. His vivid wordplay ranks him up there with Mac, Mia X , and C-Murder. The album was released in early 1998. It sold well for an album with little promotion(it debuted at #13 on the Billboard pop charts selling 83,000 copies in its first week).
Although Slim lacks the creativity of, say, B.G., his flows are so quick and precise that you can't help but marvel. Just look at the 1st track. Only problem is the number of guest appearances. The entire No Limit family is here. The track with Snoop was the best, but the other rappers don't sound well with Slim except for Trenitty, Mac and C-Murder.
Get it, ya heard?

C-Murder became very lazy on this one. It seems like he was forced to go into the studio. There is no real effort in his raps and he sounds lousy often. The energy he diplayed on Life or Death is not displayed here. The cut with Daz was good and the cut with Goodie Mob was straight too. Ride on Dem Bustas should have been promoted, but apart from these tracks, there is nothing new on Bossalinie.

Soulja Slim demonstrates that he can survive without the help of Master P. Lets face it No Limit always played favorites with their artists. In 2000, P only released albums from himself ,C-Murder, and Snoop Dogg. No attention was paid to the lesser known artists such as Magic or Soulja Slim. Only C-Murder supported Soulja Slim throwing Slim onto C-P-3.COM. On "U bootin up" Slim makes it clear that his friendship with C-Murder was the only thing stopping him from lashing out at Silkk the Shocker:"I wasn't gonna f*** wit ya on the strength of C(-Murder) but now i'ma f*** wid ya on the strentgh of P"
Every artist on No Limit thought that No Limit should have been run by C-Murder, who although lack s the bussiness savvy of big brother P at least never played favorites with his artists(C released two Magic albums in the span of one year on Tru records)
Anyway Slim can survive on his own and with the collaboration with B.g. just around the corner, Slim's future looks bright.