Beanie Sigel Holds Up Stores With State Property

Beans, Freeway, Oschino, Sparks, Chris and Neef make self-titled debut.

Things are getting done Beanie Sigel's way.

The gutter griot, who vows to not change his thuggish ways on or off wax, is seeing his first starring vehicle, "State Property," hit silver screens, and he's giving an in-depth introduction to the world of his Criminal Records group of the same name.

"They're spitting fire," Sigel said of the six-man team from Philadelphia who released their self-titled debut on Tuesday (January 29). "I believe their story. It ain't like I just met [fellow State Property member] Freeway. I heard him and was listening, like, 'Yo, Freeway spitting.' He was around for a year before he even signed. Go to his 'hood — what he's rapping about is real. Oschino, he just came home. He beat two murder raps. I don't know nobody that beat two murder raps. Sparks, he hangs out with the winos. That's why I got them, whether people think they hot or not. Once you be around them, you feel them."

The first single, "Roc the Mic," features Beans and Freeway. Their kinetic wordplay (guns, drugs and "turning the club out" are the tune's favorite topics) and production team Just Blaze's equally energized beat have the track heralded by critics as Beans' greatest chance to touch the mainstream to date.

"It's just basically letting everybody know we're here," said Freeway, who missed his chance to appear in the movie "State Property" as he was in jail when it was filming two years ago. "Still, watch what you say to us. We're trying to do our thing. Just leave us alone, let us make our music. I ain't even know that was gonna be the first single."

Freeway, whose name is derived from his reputation for transporting illicit substances, tells of his adventures with a solo cut, "International Hustler." He's humbled, however, on "Sun Don't Shine," which also features Oschino and the crew's final two members, the Young Guns: Chris and Neef.

"Tell me how we know, this life we lead will take us places we don't wanna go," Sparks says on the chorus to "It's Not Right." Chris joins Free and Beans as they reflect on some of the treachery brought on by their lives as hustlers.

"You know why I got the most personality?," asks the S.P.'s most charismatic member, Sparks. "I been through so much bullsh--. You know what it comes from? It comes from my dad not being there, no conversation with mom, duke. I strayed to the streets. You meet a bunch of muthaf---ers and go through so much sh--, you gotta have a personality. You gotta smile through all the bull."

On the hook, Sparks rhymes over slow piano jabs and guitar plucks. "Now I really wanna change but I'm chasing change/ Trying to ease the pain, shelter for the rain, I don't wanna hurt no mo'," he says as loop of a woman bellowing "It's not right" drives home the mellow, dramatic mood.

"Got Nowhere" also includes a loop of woman in apparent distress. "Ooh ooh, I got nowhere to goooooo," she pleads. Beans expresses more woe: "I'm caught up in the system where the blind leads the blind and this artist only speaks on the sign of the times/ And I pop pills, sip purple rain to escape my pain ... "

Making that song was especially somber for Beans and Free, as they wrote it in Miami the night Aaliyah died in a plane crash. Free said she was flying to Miami to work on a remix to her single "More Than a Woman" with them. Still, the guys had to keep their eyes on the prize. Little distracted them while they put their LP — which was originally going to be just an EP — together.

"We worked every day," Chris said of the album's production. "We'd be going up to New York every day and come back down to Philly. 'Cause that little ride ain't nothing, that little hour and a half. When we get together, we get stuff done fast. When we're home, we get stuff done too. We've got our little studio time and do stuff on our own. We bring that to the table, too. We give them a whole lot of stuff to pick from. We're focused."