Steve 'Flash' JuonDanell D-Shot Stevens is an unlikely subject for ink (digital or physical) to be spilled about these days, and that may be exactly why he’s such an attractive topic. With only two solo albums that achieved any level of success and a career largely overshadowed by his brother E-40, it’s entirely to his good fortune that his rap family is his actual family. If it wasn’t for The Click there’s a good chance he would never have done anything in rap at all. I mean no disrespect toward Mr. Stevens by saying so, but it would be even more disrespectful to not be honest. D-Shot didn’t do himself any favors by naming his fourth album “Callin All Shots” when his first and best album was “The Shot Calla.” That’s the opposite of search engine optimization — it’s search result obfuscation.
“Obfuscation” is in fact what this release is about. In the span of 53 minutes, only two songs feature no guest stars, and most feature multiple people. This is what D-Shot is all about when he’s at his best. Could you say he’s the V-Town equivalent of DJ Khaled? No, not really. Whether you like Khaled or not he’s at least got signature phrases you can remember and hits to match, even if he’s taking credit for the things other people do. D-Shot doesn’t have any “WE THE BEST” or “another one” signatures, but there’s no doubt that this is a compilation of other rappers with only one person’s name on the cover. Good news if you’re a fan of A2thaK — he’s on four of them.
This could have been the road back to the Billboard charts for D-Shot, but “Callin All Shots” commits the cardinal sin of not calling ANY shots. I’m not sure why “Run Are Block” is spelled that way (they’re clearly saying “we run our block”) but Cheapskate, Tish, Jada and Woodstock sound exactly like the local artists who open for bigger acts on tour. They’re not bad — they’re just not that memorable and the production doesn’t help. This formula is repeated throughout the album to the point that even bigger names like Kurupt and Turf Talk get lost in the sauce. When an actual sibling like E-40 shows up on a track like “The 707” it comes as a huge relief.
At times it feels like the mission of RapReviews.com is to chronicle the albums of hip-hop music that would otherwise be forgotten. We’ve never stated that as a goal individually or collectively, but I can state for a certainty that D-Shot’s fourth album fits that criteria anyway. In terms of standing out in his own crew he runs fourth behind 40 Fonzarelli, his cousin B-Legit, and his sister Suga-T. It’s not even his fault that genetics blessed them that way, but it’s certainly somebody’s fault that he didn’t recognize how much their presence here would have helped. With no appearances by B and only one each by 40 and T, “Callin All Shots” might make you want to drink a few to get through it. At least someone is here to acknowledge that this album exists, no matter how forgettable it might ultimately be. It’s not BAD… but it’s just not that good.