Hell Rell

A few things stand out about the rapper Hell Rell, also known as Durell Muhammed to members of his family and close personal and professional associates. He's tougher than leather, having spent two years in the can due to drug charges, which delayed the launch of his solo career. He's also a member of the rap troupe The Diplomat, and he was still able to appear on one of their albums while incarcerated by rapping into his jailhouse phone! The rapper is nothing if not inventive.

However, one wishes that some of that creative spunk and spark would have spilled over onto Black Mask, Black Gloves, his second solo album. Sure, the hip hopper effectively capitalizes on his street chic aesthetic. In images, he can be seen sporting a dapper suit and black gloves or iced fingers. Musically, he's going, "Bombs away," delivering hardcore, expletive-laden lyrics. The accompanying music on Black Mask, Black Gloves is a secondary, practically minimalist element. The rapper's booming vocals and his provocative words function at the front and center of the album, with beats and samples so simple that they are buried underneath the timber of our man Hell's vox. His deep, throaty tone glazes Black Mask, Black Gloves with a layer of seriousness and forces the listener to pay close attention to what Hell Rell is saying. While he's not exactly a verbal prophet, he does go about the business of boasting on jams like "Get Ready," "Rumors," where he excitingly breaks down his standing and status in the current scene, and "Think of a Problem." These three songs are the album's strongest, surliest cuts.

Hell's tunes aren't overloaded with studio trickery. Instead, they are stripped down to their base parts, making them feel like throwbacks from the era when gangsta rap reigned supreme and crews like N.W.A. ruled the streets. While Hell Rell isn't quite the poet that, say, Ice Cube was during his heyday, Hell Rell makes plenty of references to current pop culture events, anchoring him in the here and the now, all the while paying homage to a n era of rap gone by.

— Amy Sciarretto
07.29.08

Hell Rell has some points to make with Black Mask Black Gloves. First, he has a lot of cash (not only does his jumbo-faced, diamond-encrusted watch on the cover look expensive, but according to him, his birth certificate is a hundred dollar bill); second, he isn't afraid to maim or kill to get his money ("I have a million enemies, killed one in May, one in June"); and third, he is nicknamed Ruga, after the guns he uses to make his cash (his alias is shouted as a catch phrase proudly throughout every song). Now, while this may all sound very familiar, the key factor that sets Ruga apart from the vast amount of other rappers who brag about their street cred, ice, and ability to use a gat, is that he sounds wholly authentic when he boasts his credentials. He explains that if he were not a rapper he would be a crack kingpin, and if you analyze his imposing personality and his infatuation with drugs, violence, and making big money, and then consider that he spent two years in prison for drug charges, his backup occupation seems entirely feasible. "Realest Ni**a Doin' It" drives home the point that he's a genuine thug, and shows why hard-hitting has become synonymous with the name Hell Rell. Over the threatening bangs of the beat, he sells coke, receives fellatio unwillingly, shoots cops, bombs blocks, steals armored trucks, and threatens to curse out the listener's mother. Temper fuels the gist of the album, and though he can throw in the occasional amusing anecdote with acrobatic abandon, after a while the limited topics wear thin along with the relentless in-your-face rhyme style. Relieving the monotony, mates Sen and Jr Writer each make an appearance before "Rumors" addresses slanderous remarks about them and the rest of 730 Dips; "Come on Baby Girl" changes pace into a love ballad (albeit a thuggish one), where he sweet-talks his woman like DMX with romantic promises of taking her to Paris to buy her shoes and Italy to buy her a slice of pizza; and "Push 'Em Back" is an urban tutorial about what to do while in the clubs. Even when the flow starts to filter and fails to sound original, the solid production maintains interest with stripped-down beats, '70s creamy spy jams, '80s keyboard lines, and head-bobbin' drum machine blasts to keep things moving. ~ Jason Lymangrover, All Music Guide