Unleashed

AMG Review of Unleashed

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Paris' long-delayed fourth album, Unleashed, finally appeared in 1998, four years after the release of Guerrilla Funk. Four years is nearly a lifetime in hip-hop, and many trends passed during the time Paris was out of action. He does his best to keep up with the times without diluting his rage on Unleashed, trying out variations on G-funk and bass music and, in general, toning down the Public Enemy influences that dominated his first three albums. That has the end result of tempering his message, but there's still enough fury in his rhymes to make the album hit hard, even if it doesn't have the overall impact of his earlier records.