As the third member of The Lox, Sheek Louch often gets overlooked. While he is the bigger than life, bombastic character of the group, lyrically, Jadakiss and Styles P take all of the shine. With that said, Sheek has carved out a niche for himself, putting his personality on display while making the kind of albums that he not the record labels dictate. With his fifth studio album, Donnie G:Don Gorilla, Sheek takes it back to the jungle.

One thing Sheek has always had is an ear for beats. While his lyrics aren’t on par with Jadakiss and Styles, his ear for gritty, grimy production has helped his previous releases. The trend continues on Donnie G:Don Gorilla as the bangers “Clip Up Reloaded”, “Get It Poppin”, “Ready4War” (even with it’s bad singing) keep the head nodding. Lyrically, Sheek isn’t breaking any ground, but if you’ve heard his previous four albums, then you know what to expect. “Ol Skool” has potential as Bun B. rips it as usual, but overall the track just doesn’t do anything to blow the listener away. Other tracks of note are the dope “Nite Falls”, “Make Some Noize” and the ill “Dinner Guest”, which finds Jadakiss killing it while completely taking over the collaboration.

While the album does have a nice collection of bangers, it has more than it’s fair share of throwaways. At this point, one would assume that Sheek would stray from the radio and club attempts. Wrong. Two perfect examples are the mediocre “Picture Phone Foreplay” and “Club Jam Packed”. Other tracks such as “Blood and Tears” and “Party After Two” are completely forgettable and out of place.

Overall, Donnie G:Don Gorilla is a good, but not great release. It falls short with the inclusion of a few filler tracks which are unnecessary, given that the album is only 13 tracks deep. The self described “Silverback Gorilla” doesn’t go wild on this release and the result is a bit of a disappointment.