After a de-masculinating piggyback cling onto rippling G-Unit back muscles in 2005 (Prodigy even branded himself with a crew hand-stamp) and the resulting diamond-encrusted platter of steaming shit that East Coast legends Mobb Deep disguised as their seventh studio album, Havoc and Prodigy had a lot of explaining to do – that is, after the guilt of joyriding in their shiny new Porsches began to somewhat smother the pleasure of it all.

Prodigy’s decision to release second solo album Return of the Mac on G-Unit rival label Koch came as a bit of a shock considering the fresh beef scars, but thank the hip-hop heavens for it, because the short-and-to-the-point mixtape drops him right back off on that grimy New York street corner of the hard-luck Infamous days, dumpster-diving for some of the slimiest, oddball rhymes/nonrhymes of his career. Single “”Stuck on You”” is unfortunately the most regressively packaged of the bunch: shout-outs and shut-downs lean toward predictable, and opposite-coast producer Alchemist staples a chipmunked soul sample to his staggering beat for a rich but unsurprising jaunt. Still, Prodigy’s clumsy lust letters, nonchalant fires-under-asses and even a jab at Nas – “”Escobar ain’t got shit on P”” – make for a welcome return to this mac’s once-untouchable mojo. (SW)