Freddie Foxxx is, needless to say, a tough motherfucker. He’s big (270 lbs.), cut like a prisoner and blessed with rhyme skills that are as intimidating as his frame. And he’s venomously angry about the current state of hip-hop. And when a big, tough guy like Freddie Foxx gets angry, people should pay attention. Long the go-to guest slayer, Foxxx finally put his skills on the block with 2000’s “Industry Shakedown”, an album that silenced any naysayers. As the follow-up, “Konexion” again takes aim at the tired glam clichés that are suffocating a genre that Foxxx considers his lifeblood. Spitting mad, Foxxx (with production by Hidden Agenda, with occasional help from Premier, Clark Kent and DJ Rukas) delivers an unmistakably solid set of 18 tracks that serve as a reminder of the genre’s continuing vitality, while refusing to forgive the bling bruises inflicted on it by lesser rappers.
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2003.