Escape Route

Gruff rapper Joe Budden's conquest of 2009 continued with ESCAPE ROUTE, an album released the same year as his hit full-length, PADDED ROOM, and the debut from his supergroup Slaughterhouse. ESCAPE ROUTE is labeled as a precursor to his 2010 album THE GREAT ESCAPE, but save a rocky flow plus a couple of tracks that are B- at worst, it hardly feels like a stopgap release. You wouldn't expect to declare a track dubbed "Intro" a highlight, but with a Requiem for a Dream sample and cold killer punch lines like "Life's a bitch/I'm just lookin' up her dress", this generically titled juggernaut is Budden at his best. The regretful "Never Again" sounds like the unlikely pairing of Mobb Deep and any given Emo band while the stately "State of You" takes a much more Hollywood approach to despair and, along with "Intro," suggests the rapper has been digging on soundtracks of late. Most of these dramatic creations come from producer Jared F with a handful of helpers--the Worxxx, Chad West, and Stre