In some ways, hip hop's forgotten men--eight years on from their chart-topping "O.P.P.", and who remembers New Jersey's finest? Much like the Jungle Brothers and A Tribe Called Quest, NBN learned to their dismay that the lifespan of a hip hop act is not merely finite, but accelerated, and that in the eyes of the record-buying public, you're only as good as your last top-10 single. So it was perhaps symptomatic of their desire to re-establish their place within the hierarchy, that this album was so dazzlingly replete with guest-spots--everyone from members of the No Limit crew (Master P, Silkk The Shocker and Mystikal on "Live Or Die"), to Big Punisher on "We Could Do It", stop by to drop some rhymes--though in fact, all this cameo-spotting generally distracts from, rather than enhances, the group's own skills. Which (it has to be said) are not all they once were, back in the day. --Andrew McGuire