Hip Hop Music CD'sp

Da Real World [ECD] [EXPLICIT LYRICS]
Missy Misdemeanor Elliott

Hip-Hop Music - Da Real World [ECD] [EXPLICIT LYRICS] - Missy Misdemeanor Elliott Cd

"She's a Bitch" isn't just the first single from Missy Elliott's much-awaited sophomore album, it's a statement of pride that repurposes that five-letter malediction for our heroine's own uses. The spirit of freedom and strength it represents reverberates throughout her tough-minded Da Real World. Elliott and creative cohort Timbaland shine again, hijacking song forms and beats, shifting tempos in the middle of tracks, and incorporating guests such as Outkast's Big Boi, Aaliyah, and Eminem to heighten intensity and drama as in a good film. Elliott and Timbaland are still in their early 20s, and it's a smart bet that they'll be around when their 30s roll up.

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Full Clip: A Decade Of Gang Starr [EXPLICIT LYRICS]
Gang Starr

Hip-Hop Music - Gang Starr - Full Clip: A Decade Of Gang Starr [EXPLICIT LYRICS] Cd

A massive double disc packed with 33 tracks--a few new cuts, many old faves, and some rare B-sides--Full Clip presents a decent overview of the group's impressive 10-year sonic canon. Gang Starr standards spanning the likes of "Manifest" (from their 1989 debut, No More Mr. Nice Guy), to the anti stick-up kid rhetoric of "Just to Get a Rep" (off of 1991's Step in the Arena), to "Soliloquy of Chaos," their rapturous criticism of violence at rap shows (culled from 1992's Daily Operation), as well as "Code of the Streets" and "Mass Appeal" (both taken from 1994's Hard to Earn), are all represented in full. Additionally, there are plenty of tasty B-sides like "Credit Is Due" and "The ? Remains," tucked in alongside soundtrack contributions like the pioneering jazz/hip-hop jammie "Jazz Thing" from Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues. And the new tracks, such as the lumbering, scratch-filled "Full Clip," prove that Gang Starr are still very capable of concocting relevant, head-bangin' hip-hop madness. If there are any complaints with Full Clip, it's that the compilation tends to lean more heavily toward the group's later efforts (only one joint off Mr. Nice Guy is included while there are at least five represented from each of their '92, '94, and '98 efforts). Plus there are a few noticeable omissions, specifically "Love Sick," Guru's tasty lament from Step in the Arena. But the gist of the Full Clip compendium is to celebrate Gang Starr's noteworthy career by presenting a broad overview of the duo's work, and to that end, it delivers in spades.

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Great Adventures Of Slick Rick
Slick Rick

Hip-Hop Music - Slick Rick - Great Adventures Of Slick Rick Cd

After he gained legendary status rapping on Doug E. Fresh's "La Di Da Di," it was only a matter of time before the world would clutch British-born Ricky Walters to its heart. Rick had already fancied himself a rabid storyteller (and a mighty good one) on Fresh's track "The Show," and Great Adventures became Slick Rick's novella. Not content with one perspective, Slick Rick often employed tag-team rhyming with himself as his own partner ("Mona Lisa," "Teacher Teacher"). His cautionary tales ("Hey Young World," "Children's Story," "Teenage Love") work much better than his freaky tales ("Treat Her Like a Prostitute," "Indian Girl"). Still, it doesn't take a musicologist to appreciate the complex rhyme schemes and scenarios of "The Moment I Feared," "Children's Story," and "Mona Lisa," and his slight accent heightened his distinctiveness. Despite lukewarm response to his follow-up--as well as a stint in the pokey--Slick Rick will always be remembered for his Great Adventures, an essential B-boy document.

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Heavy Rhyme Experience: Vol. 1 [EXPLICIT LYRICS]
Brand New Heavies

On this record, the Brand New Heavies play their funky, jazzy British soul behind some of the finest MCs of the early '90s. Sadly, only Gang Starr survived the next few years as a viable allstar, but these tracks document a golden age of hip-hop writing. Gang Starr's Guru declaims; Brand Nubian's Grand Puba is laid-back and playful; Masta Ace is agile and crisp. A shimmery, techno-edged guitar riff brightens Kool G. Rap's street-real "Death Threat," while Black Sheep play verbal Three Stooges on "State of Yo" and Pharcyde get all Little Rascals on the comic "Soul Flower." As Puba says: "The bass player's real, and the drummer's real/It ain't just a simple loop so don't get souped."

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Make The Music 2000
Rahzel

Hip-Hop Music - Rahzel - Make The Music 2000 Cd

You might not know the name, but you already know the voice: for years, Rahzel has been the secret weapon in one of hip-hop's best-equipped arsenals, the multitalented band The Roots. As their human beatbox, Rahzel gives the band an unmatched level of flexibility, and on his solo debut, that's exactly what he demonstrates. Alternating between studio tracks and live cuts, Rahzel shows his vocal dexterity as a frontman (the kickin' "All I Know," produced by Pete Rock), a backer ("Southern Girl," "Night Riders"), and all by his lonesome. Though some of the guests make worthwhile contributions, most serve simply to distract the listener from the main attraction, who's at his best when performing solo in front of a crowd--check out the jaw-dropping cover of "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthing Ta F With" and the one-man Mortal Kombat duel. Ultimately, the self-proclaimed Godfather of Noyze leaves you wanting for only one thing: more.

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Northern Sulphuric Soul
Rae & Christian

Hip-Hop Music - Rae & Christian - Northern Sulphuric Soul Cd

Texas-affiliated British hip hop producers make star-spangled debut. In three years, Mark Rae and Steve Christian have followed a strange path from working in a Manchester record shop to producing Good Advice for Texas's White On Blonde album. Northern Sulphuric Soul boasts a stellar cast. Texas themselves appear on The Hush, a creamy ballad recalling Massive Attack's version of William De Vaughn's Be Thankful For What You've Got. Appearances by Jeru The Damaja and Jungle Brothers indicate the respect afforded Rae & Christian by the infamously Anglophobic hip hop community. Their productions rise confidently to the occasion, matching taut, funky beats to echo-laden orchestral flourishes. And local vocalist Veba is the album's great discovery, strident and haunting in equal measure on Swan Song (For A Nation).

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Uptown Saturday Night
Camp Lo

Hip-Hop Music - Camp Lo - Uptown Saturday Night Cd

While they aren't the first to do so, Camp Lo's Sonny Cheeba and Geechie Suede make a direct appeal from hip-hop's current generation back to the blaxploitation era on Uptown Saturday Night, which recrafts the up-tempo, party atmosphere of the swinging 1970s, resplendent in the musical and cultural iconography of Harlem- and Bronx-style blaxploitation. Even for listeners who never watched Shaft, Superfly, or The Mack, Camp Lo's songs carry themselves with a cool air of slick styles. As critics have noted, Cheeba and Suede's lyrics are often nonrhyming barrages of key blaxploitation terminology that--read conventionally--actually make no sense, but their spitfire pacing makes up in style what their verses lack in content (which is actually a pretty good description of blaxploitation, if you think about it). Much credit needs to go to producer Ski (who was also the musical mastermind behind Jay Z's impressive debut, Reasonable Doubt), who shows a smart sampling ear with bubbly pop tracks that are infectious enough to rock the party while still appealing to hardcore hip-hop heads.

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Very Mercenary
Herbaliser

Hip-Hop Music - Herbaliser - Very Mercenary Cd

Compared with label mates like Coldcut, the Herbaliser doesn't always get a lot of attention. That's a shame, because they might just be the most interesting--and the most accessible--artists in the Ninja Tune Records camp. Working with a bevy of talented MCs--What What, the ultra-smooth woman from the Natural Elements crew; Roots Manuva; the Dream Warriors--and a number of musicians who are touring members of the band, Wherry and Teeba have made a subtle, minor classic here. Assembled from pieces they've worked on for the past few years--selections have appeared on EPs (Wall Crawling Giant Insect Breaks) and mix tapes--the mix is a seamless blend of classy dance-floor jazz and hip-hop; if it sometimes plays like a soundtrack, that's because the entire album is informed with a noir style. The duo has taken the sound it developed over the Herbaliser's prior two albums (Remedies and Blow Your Headphones) and guided it in a more refined direction on Very Mercenary. It's a treat to listen to.

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Spectrum
Quannum

Usually, when you pull together a collective of creative artists, what emerges is something greater than the sum of its parts. That was the hope for Quannum, a collection of some of the people responsible for the most interesting sounds in late-1990s hip-hop (DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, and Latyrx), all of whom had worked together in Sacramento's Solesides collective. However, Spectrum, the first group released under the Quannum name, seems like a collection of the various members' wackier experiments, and while some of them (Latryx and DJ Shadow's "Storm Front," Maroons and Chief Xcel's "Golden Rule") bear fruit, most seem over-indulgent. The production is consistently creative and interesting, but as the songs veer into the realms of funk, soul, and R&B, the songwriting just isn't there; most everyone present on the album has made some great music, but little of it is to be found here.

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