Off sheer charm and confidence, Devin could make you rally behind having a shitty car-as long as you had a car, you won. ItвЂ™s a neвЂ™er-do-well opus, a 60-minute stretch of time where the narrator could be any person on any given day.

Just TryinвЂ™ Ta Live is the kind of rap album where you donвЂ™t even need to aspire to be Devin-mainly because heвЂ™s high and non-aspirational. The sound of DevinвЂ™s world-green, hazy, and funky-also had space for deeper meaning.ДЄnd by trying to be serious for once, Devin the Dude unlocked his secret power: creating moments more realistic than any of his Houston counterparts. Devin intended Just TryinвЂ™ Ta Live to lean more into the music than his humor, alluding in a 2002 interview with MTV to a more вЂњserious riffвЂќ going through the album. It had all of the same crude sexual humor that made Devin an outright star on вЂњFuck FacesвЂќ but as the album wore on, it flattened out. вЂњI feel like I am no better than anybody else, and sometimes I donвЂ™t get the girl at the end.вЂќДevinвЂ™s previous album, his 1998 debut The Dude, amped up the goofball nature of Fadanuf and packaged it around verses from Scarface, the Odd Squad, and others. вЂњIвЂ™ve never considered myself a star,вЂќ he told Noisey in a 2017 profile. HoustonвЂ™s favorite weed head, the guy type-casted for stoner comedy soundtracks, was suddenly a known entity outside of city limits, though not really a household name. Dre tapped Devin for вЂњ Fuck You,вЂќ off of DreвЂ™s explosive 2001, plucking him off of shows with Dre protГ©gГ© Mel-Man. There was Devin on the chorus of вЂњ Fuck Faces,вЂќ a sex romp from ScarfaceвЂ™s 1998 album My Homies that evolved into a cult classic.

The road towards Devin the DudeвЂ™s second solo album, the quixotic and subtly titled Just TryinвЂ™ Ta Live, made it seem like he was being primed for stardom. With dreams of a second Odd Squad record dashed by the label, Devin determined he could be just as good on his own. The album crashed and burned later that year, Rap-A-Lot poured its resources into ScarfaceвЂ™s hard-bodied The Diary instead. It was part East Coast boom-bap, part juvenile raps about sex (вЂњYour PussyвЂ™s Like DopeвЂќ) and weed (вЂњRev. The Odd SquadвЂ™s sound didnвЂ™t come anywhere near the rugged sides of Houston, instead opting for back-of-the-crate samples of Milt Jackson, the Crusaders, and the Five Stairsteps. They were funky class clowns, messing around with samples and instrumentals and delivering only one album, 1994вЂ™s rollicking Fadanuf Fa Erybody. He and his group the Odd Squad-a rag-tag trio of misfits turned best friends featuring Jugg Mug and the blind rapper DJ Rob Quest-defied all conventional Rap-A-Lot logic. He didnвЂ™t have ScarfaceвЂ™s mystique, Bushwick BillвЂ™s outrageous stage persona, or Big MikeвЂ™s blunt delivery. Devin was always вЂњthe dude,вЂќ another cast member in Rap-A-Lot RecordsвЂ™ long history of colorful characters who never fit hip-hopвЂ™s ideal image of a star.

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