Four years after his debut album, The RBX Files, RBX resurfaced on Street Solid with his sophomore effort, No Mercy, No Remorse/The X-Factor. While a four-year wait between albums wouldn't be as big of a deal in jazz, blues, pop, or country, it's an eternity in hip-hop -- a genre in which trends and tastes can change radically in the course of a few years. And when you consider that the release of The RBX Files was delayed a few years because of RBX's problems with Dr. Dre in the early 1990s, you're really talking more than a four-year gap between albums. But delays and all, RBX's rapping style still sounds quite fresh on this 1999 CD. Quirky and hardcore at the same time, RBX is a very recognizable rapper -- he came out of the Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg school of Los Angeles gangsta rap, but RBX reminds listeners that he's very much his own man on tunes like Ambush Torture, Oh, No, and Make My Day, which features Treach of Naughty by Nature. Taken as a whole, the album doesn't make a single, cohesive statement -- essentially, it serves as a vehicle for RBX's interesting rhyming technique. With Solid Entertainment founder Jay Warsinske serving as executive producer, No Mercy, No Remorse/The X-Factor is a respectable, long overdue follow-up from an MC who should have recorded a lot more often in the 1990s. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi

1		Forewarning [Intro]
2		Out Wit da Old
3		Got to Getcha
4		Heatmizer
5		Oh No
6		The Narrator
7		Steam Train
8		Who You Foolin'? [Interlude]
9		Make My Day
10		No Mercy, No Remorse
11		Ambush and Torture
12		Move
13		Gigolo Skalloni
14		Flatline
15		Beach Length