-Block could learn a thing or two from their fellow Koch-dwelling New York rap lifers, the Diplomats. In the post-50 Cent mixtape explosion, the concept of supply and demand has been turned on its head to the point that the more music you put out, the more fervent and dedicated your fanbase becomes. Dip Set floods the market and somehow leave heads wanting even more. And if someone else's output doesn't keep pace, there's a good chance the streets will get amnesia.

Veteran trio The Lox, who came up in the mid-90's, when all you needed to build a buzz was a couple freestyles on a Clue tape, don't seem particularly concerned with keeping a constant presence on the scene. Part of this can be blamed on their beef with Curtis "Interscope" Jackson, who claims to have put a freeze on future albums from Styles P. and Jadakiss. But instead of hitting the black market hard, like the Clipse did with their recent mixtape campaign that put them back on Jive's release schedule, the boys from Yonkers have been strangely stingy with new material. And for evidence, one need look no further than their latest release, The CD/DVD Mixtape, which they seem to have put as much thought into the content of as the title.

At nine songs in just over a half hour, the audio disc in this package is inexcusably paltry. The tracklisting on the back cover is vague about who performs on which tracks, which is probably so that potential consumers won't realize until they've already bought the album that only five of the CD's nine tracks actually feature members of the Lox. Their young protege J-Hood gets no less than three solo tracks. And, sure, he’s not offensively bad (like Papoose), but he’s dull enough to induce cringing at his apparent starring role here.

If the brief running time is bad enough, the two best tracks on the disc are the ones that were previously released. "Devine" is a standout here despite not being particularly noteworthy on Sheek Louch's 2005 album After Taxes. And "Everything Ya Got" was produced by Clinton Sparks and showed up on a few of the DJ's mixtapes months ago. Sparks samples Gary Portnoy's "Where Everybody Knows Your Name," better known as the theme song from Cheers, and snips a couple cleverly placed lyrics—"wouldn't you like to get away?" and "take everything you've got"—to repurpose the song as a giddy anthem for stick up kids.

Of the new material, "D.B.L.O.C.K." is a remarkably low key anthem intro, and Styles P. headlines "Discipline" with some of his less distinguished protégés. Of course, the CD wouldn't be complete without a Fiddy diss, and "Kill Ya Self," which opens with a sample of 50's shout out to Yonkers from "Back Down," sets up Sheek for a barrage of putdowns ("I know Queens can't be proud of 'Candy Shop'"). Aside from that, there's just the completely forgettable "Let It Go" from D-Block third stringers Team Arliss.

Of course, the CD might have just been an afterthought, to justify the commercial release of the DVD. But the amateur documentary therein isn't anything special in and of itself. And where they could barely cough up a handful of songs for the audio disc, the DVD sprawls well past two hours, with an unfocused sequence of interviews, videos, and random in-the-hood footage. In short, it's as boring and pointless as almost every hip-hop DVD on the streets these days. Although the interviews are sometimes refreshingly candid, there's nothing on there worth watching twice (or once, if we're gonna be honest about it), save for the charmingly low budget video for "Discipline" in which Styles raps outside a car wash while two middle-aged women in sweatsuits dance behind him. A bad album is a waste of a disc, but The CD/DVD Mixtape is worse: a waste of two differently formatted discs.