AMG Review of Against Da Grain

Roxanne Blanford
All Music Guide

Against da Grain is a collection of dance club-ready anthems packed with familiar ghetto boasts and party grooves. The Atlanta, GA-based duo YoungBloodZ employs guitar-driven tracks layered with pulsing bass rhythms and laid-back beats to complement their easily plied Southern-drawl rap attacks. The production crew on this release includes worthy contributions from the Attic and the Dungeon Family, conglomerates of local rappers and producers providing beats and backing rhymes. While this makes for a homegrown project certain to please fans of the Southern bounce sound, it also creates an abundance of sound-alike tracks, making this debut relatively indistinguishable from other recordings out of the same region.