The dawn of the ‘90s allowed for a ballooning rap crowd to get record deals and eventually make a huge pot of money, get lazy and eventually disappear. That’s not necessarily the arc of every group’s career and even if Tha Alkaholiks (aka Tha Liks) maintained a pretty devoted following into the new millennium, it became apparent that there was a finite number of albums that the trio could crank out with a lone focus on drunkenness. With a declining album sales and a growing thirst for success, though, the group called it quits after 2006’s Firewater – and honestly, I didn’t even know that album existed until today.

But despite that new found down time, Tash, Tha Liks front man, hadn’t returned to solo work since his 1999 Rap Life. But for whatever reason, perhaps a deluge of cold refreshments, late June saw the release of Control Freek. The disc isn’t a drastic departure from previous albums this emcee’s appeared on, but it’s updated in some ways. Work from Tha Liks, at this late date, doesn’t sound as if it’s suffered greatly with time, but its production at times sounds detached from current industry trends. And while Control Freek shouldn’t be considered a crass, commercial effort from this Liks alumni, it’s not exactly the sixth album from Tha Alkaholiks.

There wasn’t a tremendous hole that was created when Tha Liks disappeared – and it could be argued that not too many folks cared by 2006. It can’t be said, though, that Tash and his approach to raptastics ever suffered any broad criticism beyond the fact that some of his work may have singularly focused on a specific aspect of his life. Much the same could be said for Control Freek.  But even if some arm chair critique could arise, the announcement at the head of this disc – prompted by native peoples caterwauling – Tash, at least, begins with a joke to allay fears of this veteran attempting to be something that he’s not.

Not ever associated with theoretically heavy or politically relevant ideas, Tash in fact leads off Control Freek with a pair of tracks explaining why the west coast seems to be a good place to live and what kind of ladies he likes to see around the way and at shows. Counting Del the Funky Homosapien on that latter track doesn’t really save it from becoming too much more than an average booty track unfortunately.

With B Real’s appearance on the following “How Hi Can You Get” the light lyrical content continues. But of course, this is a Liks affiliated rapper and he delivers what’s expected. The production on the disc – which is amply sampled over these first few offerings – includes a bit more of a menacing tone than on discs from the Liks. But as Control Freek continues tracks like “Closer” stick out as something short of original, but well beyond merely entertaining.

It’d be easy to pretend that this was just another disc from Tash’s group. And even if it’s not, at times the album art is the only thing letting listeners know.