Various Artists: Ruff Ryders—Ryde Or Die Vol. 1

Swizz Beats' production on DMX's two platinum-plus albums has made him a hot commodity in the rap world, but his repetitive, inorganic work isn't about to make anyone forget Dr. Dre or DJ Premier. Beats may not be the world's best producer, and he's certainly not the most eclectic or versatile, but he does possess a gift for constructing unobtrusive, hardscrabble backgrounds over which fire-breathers like DMX can run roughshod. Which is exactly what DMX, The Lox, Drag-On, and Eve do on "Ryde Or Die," the first and best song on the appropriately titled Ryde Or Die, Vol. 1, a new compilation from Beats and his Ruff Ryders production team. One-upping "Ruff Ryders Anthem" in sheer chest-beating, fire-breathing arrogance, "Ryde Or Die" distills the boorish, hardcore Ruff Ryder essence down to one colossal posse beatdown. Unfortunately, that track is indicative of Beats and company's narrow musical and thematic scope, a monomaniacal musical obsession with grimy hardcore minimalism that keeps things from getting too interesting. At a time when The Roots and Outkast are stretching the boundaries of what rap can be, Ruff Ryders' emphasis on simplistic thuggishness seems sad and more than a bit dated, which is not to say there isn't anything worthwhile on Ryde Or Die. In fact, a handful of its songs indicate that there's something to the Ruff Ryder ethic after all: DMX's other two contributions, "Bug Out" and "Some X Shit," are tight and memorably demented, while Jay-Z's "Jigga, My Nigga" pulsates with unstoppable momentum. Still, there's more than enough tired cliché-slinging on Ryde Or Die, Vol. 1 to suggest that there probably won't be a whole lot of demand for further volumes.