There are no clever hooks or complicated production found on Onyx’s sixth album Cold Case Files. It’s raw, angry, scream Rap. A throwback to Hip-Hop’s darker days when everyone, even some of the ladies, was rocking Champion hoodies and Hi-Tek boots. Before the shiny suits and gratuitous flaunting, before the resurgence of the eighties aesthetic and a hankering for the good life, Onyx was one of the grimiest Rap groups ever.

They unexpectedly had a crossover hit with the song “Slam” and attracted a large Rock following, touring with loud metal bands across the country. Their 1993 debut Bacdafucup was one of the most successful Hip-Hop albums of the year. However, the crazy baldheads never garnered the same acclaim that their seminal debut did and Cold Case Files is no classic either.

The production is simple basement beats: a drum machine, a few keyboard chords, and a looped sample or two. The homemade feel to the production is enduring and maybe revered by the underground purist types, however many of the songs sound very similar. “Rock U” and “Hydro” both have an early 90’s Hip-Hop melody and the hook is Onyx basically repeating the title over and over again. The songs follow each other on the album and if you’re not paying attention, it’s hard to discern where one ends and the other begins.

Not for nothing, Onyx stays consistently and somewhat ridiculously hardcore. On “Evil Streets” featuring Method Man, Stick Fingaz growls, “I’m a hoodlum a d*** and a gun is what I’m holdin’ / Sport mad Polo but only if it’s stolen / I got no morals my mind is in the gutter / Kid I’ll open up your face with my orange box cutter.”

 This same brash, in your face street grit is echoed throughout the album. On the aptly titled , “I’ll Murda You” featuring Gang Green, Sticky rambles more than he raps, “Nah f*** that I ain’t gon’ murda you / I’ll beat you in the head with the back of  pistol and turn you into a vegetable / I’m a no good ni*** / f*** it something gotta give / Call me Mr. Negative / I’ll rob my own relative.

Although, this album isn’t the greatest, it is their sixth one. Onyx does get some credit for longevity and not becoming a flash-in-the-pan Hip-Hop group that the mid-90’s was notorious for producing.  With several albums under their belt and fairly successful solo efforts by Sticky Fingaz (Black Trash: The Autobiography of Kirk Jones) and Fredro Starr (starred on the sitcom Moesha and various movie roles) Onyx’s menacing style won’t soon be forgotten in the ever fickle world of Hip-Hop.