Only the first one gets a pic this time

DJ QUIK AND KURUPT—BlaQKout (Mad Science)
This was the year of the “temporary” rap duo, as declining record sales and other factors led everyone from EDO.G and Masta Ace to Buckshot and KRS-One to pool their resources into one-off collaborative albums. BlaQKout was easily the most revelatory of these releases, a decidedly un-gangsta, throw-everything-in-the-kitchen-sink type party album that works from start to finish. Kurupt sounded reinvigorated in his role as hype man and pinch hitter while Quik continued to quietly elevate his production and mic game, almost 20 years in. Read the rest of this entry »

Ghostdini is far from perfect, but it was needed. I like my Supreme Clientele and Iron Man as much as the next white journalist writing about rap music but I never got the appeal of Fish Scale. The Ghostface I want more from is the one who made Pretty Toney and Bulletproof Wallets. Always dug the “commercial-sounding” R&B collabs on those albums that my journalist/rap nerd colleagues like to bash—“Never Be the Same Again” is my shit. Disorienting Ghost cameos on remixes of Beyonce hits? Even better. Ghost does love as well as he does the crime stuff—anyone who wants to hear him chase Supreme Clientele again is welcome to another Big Doe Rehab.

Naturally, a recap of Ghost’s R&B collaborations and cameo spots is in order. As it turns out, two recent mixtapes already do this: there’s DJ Finesse’s Imeem-only RNB N Fish and, for those who enjoy hearing music on devices other than computers, Think Differently Music Group has a nearly identical one called R&B Duets for download on their site. It appears my work is already done for me, but here’s my personal favorite Ghost R&B remix assists, anyway: Read the rest of this entry »

Flick swiped from Rap Radar

I recently weighed in on the year’s most anticipated rap sequels in Time Out:

Jay-Z-The Blueprint 3 review

Raekwon-Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…Pt. II review

Originally meant to do these together as a comparative piece, but it worked out for the best. The Jay review has been floating around online for a while and is in this week’s issue; the Rae is a long piece, and only online.

One more thing re: the non-Wu guest appearances on OB4CL2. Busta, Slick Rick and Lyfe Jennings kind of just do what they have to do as role players but let’s have a hand for Beans, Kiss and The Ghost SP. If I could pick a list of MCs to appear on a Cuban Linx sequel, these three would be at or near the top, and they brought it. As I stated in an early, scuttled draft of the review, Beans’s verse on “Have Mercy” is just devastating. His visibility might be a little limited right now, but he has not fallen off.

I’m not buying the sauce the Bawse is selling on Deeper than Rap. I explain why in this review from this week’s Time Out. The assignment encouraged me to revisit Trilla, though. Now, that is a solid album. Been cranking this, too. Dude sounds real good on a fast early ’90s beat. Or maybe it’s just this one in particular. I don’t know why he stops after the one verse—I’m left wanting to hear a few more. “Fake Saigon, maybe”> any line on Deeper Than Rap.

Time Out also published my review of the new Wu-Tang covers album by El Michels Affair. A solid pickup for serious Wu fans, but are there enough of those any more? On a side note, I feel silly typing this but Blackout 2 could end up being the best rap album of…the quarter? first half? I heard it in a very muggy, dude-filled room last week, and was semi-amazed by the consistent quality of the tracks I heard.