by Stephen Thomas ErlewineAt the time of his death, Eazy-E was completing a comeback album that was intended to restore his street credibility, which had taken a savage beating in the early '90s. Str8 Off tha Streetz of Muthaphu**in Compton, the album he left unfinished, does show more ambition than his previous It's On, but it's unlikely that it would have made him a star again. Collaborating with his former N.W.A partners MC Ren and Yella, Eazy-E sounds revitalized, but the music simply isn't imaginative. Instead of pushing forward and creating a distinctive style, it treads over familiar gangsta territory, complete with bottomless bass, whining synthesizers, and meaningless boasts. The occasional track, like the surrealistic "Tha Mutha******in Real" and the menacing "Ole School ***t," illustrate what Eazy-E could have done if hadn't been tied to his pedestrian production, but the majority of Str8 Off tha Streetz is depressingly by the book...