It’s rare that a first track perfectly encapsulates an album, but in the case of E.S.G’s Digital Dope: The Reintroduction, that’s the case. Unfortunately for Hip-Hop fans, “Ballin’ Just a Hobby,” epitomizes the limited heights this album will reach. Over a beat solidly stuck in late-90s No Limit mode, E.S.G. tosses out stale rhymes about money, hustlin’, and weed.

As a veteran to the Houston rap game, E.S.G. seems unsure of how to modernize his sound for changes in style. He can’t come up with any fresh ideas other than taking his own wild adventure into the land of Auto-Tune on “One Hundred.” So for most of Digital Dope, he stays in his comfort zone, content to make assembly line southern rap. Tracks like “Makin’ Money,” “Fake and Real,” and “Wutchu On,” reorder the same basic beat elements and lyrical themes in a way that undermines E.S.G’s efforts to earn credibility as an overlooked innovator.

There is some “dope,” to be found here though. You don’t stay around for as long as E.S.G. has without having some skills behind the mic. He controls songs with the confidence and charisma of someone who’s done this before. Occasionally, as on “I Don’t Dance,” he takes control of a simple high-hat and synth and drives the album to a higher place. That higher place may involve chanting the chorus: “Hey I don’t dance/I just rock with the <gunshot> in the lap,” but you’ve got to respect the ability to get heads boppin.”

But charisma can only take you so far, and E.S.G. lacks the rhyming technique and storytelling abilities to carry this on for even eleven tracks. The aforementioned “Wutchu On,” bounce along well enough, but underneath the synth are facile lines like “should I run for mayor/or the governor/when you’ve got money/everybody’s lovin ya.” Worse, he slips into laziness by repeating himself often: there’s only so much use you can get out of rhyming “George Bush” and “smoke kush.”

It’s possible E.S.G. was rushing out this project in order to look forward—he’s already touting a new (non-digital) album in ’09 featuring Bun B, Chamillionaire, and others. But it’s more likely that the breakout E.S.G.’s been looking for will never come.

2.5 CIGARETTES