EPMD — Strictly Business

In 1987, Erick "E Double" Sermon and Parrish "Parrish Mic Doc" Smith formed the Brentwood, Long Island, New York hip-hop duo Easy Erick and Parrish the Microphone Doctor. The duo later shortened their name to the acronym EPMD, removing an "E" due to NWA's Eazy-E's notoriety, and changed the meaning of the acronym to "Erick and Parrish Making Dollars". The group signed to Fresh Records and released the single "It's My Thing" in 1987, and released a full-length LP the following year. The effort is devoid of guests, either on the mic or behind the keyboards.

A Tribe Called Quest — Midnight Marauders

At the height of their dazzling splendor, A Tribe Called Quest complete a trinity of classic albums by releasing their third project in three years.

Divine Styler — Spiral Walls Containing Autumns of Light

In 1990, Geffen Records moved to MCA and Warner Bros. was forced to look for another subsidiary, choosing the independent Giant Records, a label for which Divine Styler signs thanks to the friendship he has with Ice-T, a top artist of Warner Bros.

Souls of Mischief — 93 'Til Infinity

Debut album by Souls of Mischief, a hip-hop group from Oakland that is part of the Hieroglyphics collective founded by Del the Funky Homosapien. The group is made up of rappers Tajai Massei, Adam "A-Plus" Carter, Opio Lindsey and Damani "Phesto" Thompson, while production is provided by the producers of the collective Hieroglyphics. Crew members Pep Love, Casual and Del are guests on the album.

L.L. Cool J — Radio

James "LL Cool J" Smith was born in Bay Shore, on Long Island, New York, and raised in Queens. Passionate about hip-hop, he approaches rapping thanks to the Harlem hip-hop group The Treacherous Three, and was helped in his youth in his musical passion by his grandfather and mother, later his father also became closer to him. Using instruments received from his relatives, the boy creates his own demos and sends them to the city's record labels. Smith changes his moniker from J-Ski to LL Cool J (acronym to Ladies Love Cool James) and signed with independent Def Jam, label founded by the young Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons: at the age of 17, he's the first artist to sign with the label.

Onyx — All We Got Iz Us

In the spring of 1994, Fredro Starr is at the beginning of his acting career when Lyor Cohen offers him to record a new album. Big DS leaves the group, Fredro Starr aka Never, Suave aka Sonee Seeza aka Sonsee, and Sticky Fingaz remain. Production is handled entirely by the Onyx and co-producer 8-Off Assassin aka Agallah, whom Jam Master Jay decides to credit only three times. Guests are Panama P.I. and All City (Greg Valentine & J Mega), artists who have signed with the Onyx label. The album consists of ten tracks and five additional skits, for a total of three quarters of an hour of listening.

Westside Gunn — Supreme Blientele

In 2018, the Buffalo rapper Alvin "Westside Gunn" Worthy releases his second studio album. The production is realized by Daringer, The Alchemist, SADHU Gold, Hesh, Roc Marciano, Harry Fraud, Statik Selektah, Pete Rock and 9th Wonder. The guests are Keisha Plum, Benny the Butcher, Conway the Machine, Jadakiss, Busta Rhymes, Crimeapple, Elzhi, Roc Marciano, Anderson .Paak, and AA Rashid.

Cookin Soul & Don Cannon — The Lost Tapes 1.5 [mixtape]

Mixtape to homage Nas. Don Cannon shouts in "Puffy style" on the "Genesis" rhythm, ruining the opening track of "Illmatic" in a weirdo way. It follows a track named "NY State of Mind", but that's from "Street of NY" by Alicia Keys featuring Rakim. Cookin Soul cut the part from Alicia Keys and maintains the first verse from Nas and the last one from Rakim Allah, both sick. Good, simple and vivid drum machine that provides a good boom bap for the delivers of the two legends, pretty good lively jazzy rhythm, syncopated, basically devastated by the flow of the God MC.

Almost September — Almost September

Extended play of a group that is made up of MC Lyte, Jared Lee and Whitey White. This trio offers some of hip hop mixed with sweet soul, keeping love as the main theme.

RZA — Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai [soundtrack]

Second studio album in the discography of RZA, founder of the Wu-Tang Clan: more than an LP, it looks like a mixtape, and derives from the soundtrack of the eponymous movie, directed by Jim Jarmusch. The tape is almost entirely instrumental and comes a year after Bobby Digital's debut, already far from his best years.

Digable Planets — Blowout Comb

After the release of the debut, the Digable Planets move from Philadelphia to New York and settle in Brooklyn, changing their image: musically, they keep a jazz aura, while lyrically, they renounce the concept of "space insects" and set aside part of their abstract nature, bringing more clearly Afrocentric arguments to the table.

 

Taiyamo Denku — If I Did an Album with Daringer

Rapper Taiyamo Denku freestyles over a set of beats made by Daringer, best known to underground hip-hop aficionados for being the in-house producer of Griselda Records and one of the primary producers behind most of the records by the group from Buffalo, New York. Denku spits bars for about twenty minutes in these seven songs. I wish the effort was memorable, but something just isn't quite right. The set provided by Daringer isn't that good, the boom bap sounds a little generic and Denku's delivery style is a bit too soft, flat, slow, light. The tape is forgettable, strange to say for a project with Daringer. 5/10.

Stunna Gang & Statik Selektah — Powerful Musik

The debut in the rap game of Sonny "Stunna Gang" Dixon, son of Grand Puba, takes place in 2019, in a collaborative extended play together with the producer Statik Selektah. Just under twenty minutes divided into seven tracks in which one of Statik's protégé, Haile Supreme, covers half the EP. The laid-back jazz rhythms of the Massachusetts beatmaker are uninspired and unmemorable, while the young rapper from New Rochelle decides to deliver lyrics in an effortless, listless and lazy style: he's close to mumble, halfway between ordinary light-hearted rap and mumble rap. The drum is weak, sluggish, normally it would not be able to handle the normal rapping of an ordinary MC, nevertheless, the delivery is even weaker than the drum and the samples are not powerful enough (unlike what the title wants you to believe) in such a way as to carry on the songs independently. A forgettable tape comes out.

Whodini — Six

In 1996, Whodini releases his studio album number six. It's called six. The fantasy is over. After losing their chance to deal with Def Jam a couple of years earlier, the boys signed with Jermaine Dupri's So So Def. The production is handled by Dupri himself along with Dave Atkinson, Red Spyda and Carl So-Lowe. The guests are Lost Boyz, Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz, Trey Lorenz, Trina Broussard, Nicole Jackson and Mr. Black, among others.

Conway — Everybody Is F.O.O.D. 2: Eat What U Kill [mixtape]

This is the second chapter of Conway the Machine serie "Everybody Is Food". The production is provided by DJ Shay, The Alchemist, Graymatter, Ral Duke, Mephux, Khrysis and DJ Skizz. Benny the Butcher, Flee Lord and Amber Simone are the guest of the project.

Westside Gunn & Conway — Griselda Ghost EP

On September 11, 2015, the brothers Westside "Hall" Gunn and Conway "Nash" the Machine release their second project under the name Hall & Nash, after the eponymous debut a few months earlier. The production is entrusted to Big Ghost Ltd., at the debut. The cover is perfect. Beautiful. Flawless. The image represents the first moments immediately after the attempted assassination of then-US President Reagan, on March 30, 1981, at the exit of the Washington Hilton hotel, in Washington, D.C. The photo shows Secret Service agents cover Press Secretary James Brady and police officer Thomas Delahanty. Secret Service Agent Robert Wanko can be seen holding a Uzi in case of further attack. This is the cover of the reissue, it has a wonderful filter and a different title font than the original. On the back cover, Reagan himself fumbles with a bolt-action rifle. On reddit, a genius has created an "alternative cover" which is a masterpiece.

Slick Rick — The Great Adventures of Slick Rick

Richard "Slick Rick" Walters was born in Mitcham, London, to Jamaican parents. As a child, he was blinded in his right eye due to a broken glass. In 1976, the family moved to the USA, settling in the Bronx. After graduating in visual arts, he met Dana Dane with whom he formed the Kangol Crew. In 1984, the young man met Doug E. Fresh who included him in his group, the Get Fresh Crew, and the following year the crew released "The Show / La-Di-Da-Di" for Reality Records: the single achieved enormous success, but the B-side, performed entirely by Slick Rick aka MC Ricky D, became even more popular, launching his artistic career.

KXNG Crooked x Bronze Nazareth — Gravitas

Judging by the tracklist, this should be one of the albums of the year. Bronze Nazareth produces rhythms for the socio-conscious bars and the powerful flow of KXNG Crooked, with a sensational cast of guests, Snoop Dogg, Ghostface Killah, RZA, La the Darkman, Killah Priest, Hus Kingpin, Ras Kass, Bishop Lamont, PURE, Compton Menace, Planet Asia, Tristate, Benny the Butcher, 38 Spesh, Bronze Nazareth, Kevlaar 7, Statik Selektah, Royce and DMX.

Whodini — Bag-a-Trix

Hip-hop trio Whodini leave London and local label Jive to return to New York and sign with MCA. In 1991 the fifth disc of the group was released, which remained faithful to its roots, creating a funky, minimal, danceable project. Produced by Larry Smith, Major Jam Productions, Fresh Gordon and Joe Simmons, unfortunately the album all sounds the same, the beats are very similar to each other. The weak delivery of the duo doesn't work, among tasteless rnb hooks, ballads and boring songs. "Freaks" brings the group back to the rnb chart after four years and second single "Judy" charts too, however, the album fails to garner sales like it used to and ignored by fans in retrospect. Not a good record for the casual listener, fans of the group might find several tracks of interest. 4/10.

Whodini — Open Sesame

Whodini jumps on the Run-DMC bandwagon, but there's not much room to be comfortable. "Rock You Again" is a parody of the legendary duo: rocking rhythm, rap rock, decent delivery on a bare and hardcore Run-DMC style rhythm, clearly copied; the difference is that Whodini places a trivial hook on it and its delivery is lackluster.

Roc Marciano — Marcielago

This record is released at the peak of Roc Marciano's lucky decade, which came out of the underground less than ten years ago. The music is realized by Roc Marciano himself, Animoss provides two beats, one is offered by The Alchemist. The guests are Ka, Knowledge the Pirate, Cook$, Westside Gunn and Willie the Kid.

Ghostface Killah — The Pretty Toney Album

After the "Bulletproof Wallets" tracklist and packaging mess, the Stapleton emcee decided to leave the Epic Records label and the following year compiled a short compilation of tracks to quickly free himself from his contract and look for a new home. In 2002 he released "Shaolin's Finest" and in 2003 he signed with Def Jam.

In 2004, Tony Starks released his fourth studio album, the first and only under the moniker "Ghostface". It's also the first album by the Staten Island emcee to be completely devoid of guests from the Wu-Tang Clan. Among the guests linked to the supergroup is only affiliate Trife da God, member of TMF and Ghostface's group Theodore Unit. Wu-Tang mentor Allah Real is credited on "Holla". Guest appearances by all the members of the LOX stand out, as well as those of Missy Elliott, Jacki-O, Musiq Soulchild and K. Fox. The production is handled by multiple people. RZA provides two beats, the rest of the album is made with the efforts of Emile Haynie, True Master, Minnesota, No ID, Ghostface, K-Def, Derrick Trotman, Dub Dot Z, Digga and Nottz.

Whodini — Back in Black

Whodini returns to London to record his third LP and this time Jive wins a tug of war that forces the trio to follow Run-DMC more and more. Larry Smith produces the entire effort and manages to build an interesting rhythmic solution much of the time, even if his funky skeletal production doesn't sound at the same high level as the previous record. Electro music is abandoned, the subgenre had lost its appeal around the same time. The guys' delivery style is just decent, in its best moments, as several rnb hooks appear and some are performed with the vocoder. Standouts include the rock steering "Fugitive", the controversial "I'm a Ho" and the singles "Funky Beat" and "One Love", that Nas will take and extend the hook for his homonymous track on "Illmatic". "One Love" brings the group back to the top ten rnb singles after "Friends", and the third single from the album "Growing Up" also enters the charts, also thanks to the fact that Whodini receives generous airplay from New York radio stations York. The album achieved good commercial success, went strong in the charts and was certified gold, becoming one of the best sellers of the year. It's believed to be the group's last good album before their fall.

RZA — RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo

In late 1998, Robert "RZA" Diggs completed his five-year plan to take his group, the Wu-Tang Clan, to the top of the music industry, and retired from music to focus on his career as a film director. He still has time for some hip-hop and, a little over a year after the supergroup's second album, he releases his debut solo studio album. Production is done almost entirely by RZA, while Inspectah Deck and King Tech have a rhythm each. The guests, mostly uncredited, are members of Wu-Tang Clan Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Masta Killa and Ghostface Killah, members of Killarmy PR Terrorist, Killa Sin, Islord, Baretta Nine and 9th Prince, members of Black Knights Holocaust and Doc Doom (aka Dr. Doom), Timbo King of Royal Fam, Ras Kass, affiliated singers Tekitha, Jamie Sommers and Ms. Roxy, and spoken-word singers and performers Force MD's, Frank "Foxy" Niedlich, Lisa I'Anson, Angel Cake, Victorie Heathcole and Lorenza Calamanderi.

Raekwon — The Tonite Show [mixtape]

It's pretty short for a mixtape, twelve tracks, including intro, outro and skit. There are therefore nine tracks, none of which are really good. Rick Diamonds sounds really uninspired in this tape, mostly made up of cheap and mediocre production provided by DJ Fresh, with alternative, bouncy, poor rhythms, where the guy often delivers undertone, he never sounds convinced, convincing or energetic.

Statik Selektah & Paul Wall — Give Thanks EP

2019 was a memorable year for Statik Selektah, which consolidated his name on the circuit, thanks to five collaborative projects released during the season. The fourth of those five albums is the most unlikely one, made with Houston rapper Paul Wall and released on Thanksgiving, hence the title.

Fat Joe — Don Cartagena

Distancing himself from the dangers of the streets, Joseph "Fat Joe" Cartagena aka Don Cartagena finds a new path through hip-hop, emerging from the secret chambers of the genre with the group DITC and managing to release two successful albums in the space of few years, attracting the attention of the circuit.

Snoop Doggy Dogg — Doggystyle

Since the first hip-hop album released by pioneer Kurtis Blow in 1980, covers have been of considerable importance in the genre. Sure, some kids put flowers on it and don't know what to do with the covers, but real artists take them seriously. That of the debut of this boy from Long Beach, is relevant: the title, of evident sexual origin, is represented both verbatim by the brick wall and graphically, while the artist's name is drawn in the upper left corner so as to represent the face of a dog. From an idea by Dr. Dre, we have a representation of cartoon dogs, where Snoop Dogg, on top of a doghouse, reaches out to touch a dog's ass. Above him, a brick wall where three dogs watch the scene paying homage to George Clinton's 1982 hit single "Atomic Dog", a track that's also sampled throughout the album, so next to the wall, a dog catcher stands trying to catch Snoop, and finally, there's a rat, sated, it seems straight out of "Lucky and Zorba" (1996, movie based on a novel by Luis Sepulveda), which connects us to the album "The Chronic" by Dr. Dre, released the year before. The cover largely anticipates what the listener will go through for nearly an hour in these nineteen cuts, and sets off a great wave of controversy and controversy, due to its misogynist nature.

It takes ten months to record the whole project and for the rapper it's not an easy time: in August 1993, he's arrested for the death of a member of a rival gang, who was shot and killed. The material perpetrator of the crime would be the rapper's bodyguard, in any case, Snoop is accused of murder and will be acquitted in February 1996. The episode convinces the artist to definitively abandon the gangster life and inspires him to create the song "Murder Was the Case", which is followed by the short film of the same name directed by Dr. Dre and published the following year (accompanied by a solid soundtrack), welcomed by universal acclaim from specialized critics and by an excellent commercial success.

Inspectah Deck — Manifesto Redux [remixes]

Redux: Captain Willard arrives at that village controlled by Colonel Kurtz, Lance and Chef are still alive, but it's like, as soon as they got off the boat to land in the village, the photographer immediately took them to be hanged.

Elcamino — Elcamino 2 EP

Sequel to his first project released two years before. The guests are Benny, 38 Spesh and Rick Hyde. The music is provided by Green Lantern, Chris Ruben, DirtyDiggs, Camoflauge Monk, Boodeini and JR Swiftz.

Method Man — Tical 2000: Judgement Day

Method Man's second studio album, four years after his debut. As with the first wave of Wu-releases, after the supergroup album, RZA publishes his album with Gravediggaz and then it's up to Johnny Blaze to inaugurate the second wave, coming to release his sophomore in the last months of the year. In the spring, it was anticipated by the release of Cappadonna's debut album, still an affiliate at the time. The production is mainly made by the Wu-Elements: RZA decides to step aside and produces four tracks, leaving the field to other beatmakers, including True Master, the major producer of the edition, 4th Disciple and Mathematics. Among the external beatmakers, Prince Paul, Erick Sermon, Havoc, Qu'ran Goodman and the Trackmasters also provide some rhythms. The Wu-Tang Clan collaborates on the disc: Inspectah Deck, Masta Killa, Raekwon participate, in addition to the affiliates Cappadonna, Streetlife, Killer Sin of Killarmy, Polite of American Cream Team and Star of Shaolin Soldiers. External guests include Left Eye of TLC, Mobb Deep, Redman and D'Angelo.

Raekwon — Unexpected Victory [mixtape]

After an overwhelming mixtape run that ended in 2010, Chef Raekwon returns to releasing material for the underground circuit with this 17-track, 52-minute release. Some guests stand out, such as Mobb Deep, CL Smooth, Sauce Money, Fred the Godson, Busta Rhymes, Vado, Capone-n-Noreaga and Styles P, nevertheless the tape functions more as a showcase for some Lex Diamonds affiliated artists, including JD Era, Ceazar-N-Reason, Altrina Renee, Tommy Nova, Mean Doe Green, as well as Camoflauge, LEP Bogus Boys, Dion Primo and Big B. Method Man did something similar a few years later with his "Meth Lab", while everyone was waiting for the new LP. Overall, it's decent, most of the tracks are affordable and with ok production, however, the sound quality isn't great and there's nothing memorable here, it all falls a bit flat, even the joint with Mobb Deep isn't as iconic as it promises to be. Not recommended.

Cappadonna — Ear Candy

Did you see that he still holds the Wu-Tang symbol in yellow-Simpson in the cover to get your attention there and sell even more copies, while the symbol of his personal label GFL Entertainment is bigger on the bottom left, have you noticed? Why should he do it, what message does he want to send?

Method Man — Tical

In 1993, RZA's basement studio floods and the boy loses a hundred beats already made, practically one album for every Wu-Tang rapper, including an entire set for Method Man's debut. The production is redone quickly and roughly and you can feel the result still raw in these 44 minutes: the soundscape built entirely by RZA (4th Disciple and Method Man co-produce one track each) is minimal, tight, hazy and cold, with dystopian overtones, to support the raw lyricism of the MC in his battle raps with continuous references to weed and the previous Wu LP, delivering bars with a masterful flow. The guests are Wu-Tang Clan rappers Raekwon, Inspectah Deck and RZA, along with the Wu affiliates Streetlife, Carlton Fisk and Blue Raspberry.

Method Man comes from being the only guest on Biggie Smalls' album "Ready to Die" (1994), in the track "The What", an iconic, immortal, untouchable CD. In addition, he's one of the most prominent members of the New York supergroup, crediting several important contributions to "36 Chambers" including the solo song "Method Man". The rapper is the first to want to go back to the studio to record his album and gets to work with RZA while the Wu-Tang is on tour, for this reason the album has few appearances from the other members of the group and it feels rushed in every aspect, just looks at the cover. The title is in the middle of the artist's name at the top, Method Man's face is underneath and a phantom dick is coming out of the smoke, crazy. Also note the Wu-Tang logo upside down so that the W turns into an M (also cloaked in smoke, like the whole cover) and the fact that, for some reason, Wu-Tang's "N" is dazzled by a very bright light in the background. Something similar occurs in the cover of GZA's "Liquid Swords", where Wu-Tang's "G" is obscured by a chain.

Cappadonna — The Pilgrimage

After the critical failures of the previous two efforts, Cappadonna releases his sixth studio album. People are just starting to get used to the fact that yes, since 2007 this guy is the 10th official member of the Wu-Tang Clan. Despite this, perhaps due to the burden of responsibility for being an official member, Darryl Hill has posted material that's only good for the landfill, since then. The ransom comes here.

WESTSIDE DOOM — WestSide Doom

Collaboration between the legendary MF DOOM and the Buffalo rapper Westside Gunn. It's an EP of two tracks streched with versions with and without beat.

KMD — Mr. Hood

Around the beginning of the nineties, the leader of the 3rd Bass MC Serch discovered the KMD group (acronym of Kousin Much Damage), formed by the brothers Dingilizwe and Daniel Dumile, respectively known with the monikers DJ Subroc and Zev Love X.

El Camino — ElCamino EP

The game is tight. At the end of 2017, an emerging rapper came out with an EP that featuring Westside Gunn, Conway and Prodigy of Mobb Deep. Despite this, the effort has been completely ignored for years, incomprehensibly. It's an effort of a really high quality for a newcomer, even if it's the youngest to come out of Griselda Records.

E-40 — Federal

Debut album for Earl Stevens, The Click rapper with the moniker E-40, who debuted a couple of years earlier with a good quality EP. The Vallejo MC realizes a project of 14 tracks and about an hour of listening, self-produced and distributed with his Sick Wid' It Records. The production, provided by E-40 and Studio Ton, mirrors the typical Bay Area sound, close to mobb music, with great relaxed funky rhythms, slow drums, good melodic samples and light-hearted synths. Collaborate on the record, The Click's B-Legit, E-40 Jr., Kaveo, Little Bruce and Mugzi, no one surpasses Stevens here. The rapper brings typical gangsta themes to the table, spitting thug bars, braggadocio, on murders, women, money, and drugs, narrating his lyrics with a slow and fluid flow, inventing his own fresh and original style by combining some of the slang of his area. The entire LP is solid, breathes the Too Short legacy and is a good debut for E-40, managing to break through the hip-hop chart: two years later, the album is released by Jive Records, which takes away three of the weakest cuts and about ten minutes of listening, slightly strengthening the album and giving it greater replay value. 7.5/10.

Mantronix — The Album

Kurtis "Mantronik" El Khaleel and Touré "MC Tee" Embden unite to form Mantronix, releasing without too much fantasy "The Album", supported by dance singles that make their way into the Billboard charts. The New Dance City duo combines proto-techno and electronica, while MC Tee shoots some easily ignored random lines in the background between rapping, talking and singing: Mantronik creates fresh music for the time, hard, grumpy and lively, complex rhythms made with limited tools, extracting innovative robotic music from decent samples. It's the pinnacle of electro music together with the debut of Newcleus. 7/10.

O.C. & PF Cuttin — Opium

After the critical success of "Perestroika", OC tries again with another collaborative album. This time he have PF Cuttin behind the keyboards: PF provided minimal, tenses, dark, jazzy rhythms, sometimes funky, sometimes rocking, often NY, OC delivers pretty average, and this record — som' more than twenty-minutes, so a EP rather than an LP — runs smoothly, most of the songs are average good an don't stand out compared to the others, nevertheless, there are a couple of slips: "88" has a pretty failed production, poor/cheap beat, confused and weak, where OC delivers completely unfit; Credle's unfit also in "OPM", track based on a digitized, bouncy, poorly executed boom bap, with Real Shakar's hook that simply sucks in its unlistenable R&B. "Get In Line" is among the most accessible tracks: beautiful bap jazzy soulful, rare case where OC stands out. 7/10.

Big Pun — Capital Punishment

Usually when you start listening to this genre from the foundation, for fun or thanks to some friend, you end up around the usual superhyped names. I don't think anyone starts from the Sugarhill Gang or Kurtis Blow. He'd give up hip-hop after five minutes. Rightly. The milestones are always and remain those, those of the nineties, it's not even necessary to mention them, you always start from there and then you go back and forth in time and with the artists. Sooner or later you pass by some of the hyped names I mentioned earlier, often they end up being simply two or three names that at first seem generic to a newbie and that in reality therefore don't tell you anything. You never heard of them, it's normal. AZ, Big L... If you reading this text, it means that you too have heard «Big Pun».

Schoolly-D — Schoolly-D

Schoolly D writes the history by becoming the pioneer of gangsta rap with a tribute to his local Philadelphia street gang Park Side Killas on the skeletal rhythm of "P.S.K.". The production of his first LP is generally minimal, rough but still good, while the mostly decent. The lyrics are braggodocious, raw, hardcore, too gritty for the time and the performer delivers them in a relaxed, confident and charismatic way: this allows him to build some successful tracks (the progeny of the gangsta rap "PSK" above all, but also "Gucci Time" has its own historical value) which contributes to guaranteeing a lasting historical value to this piece of gangsta history, which the rapper had to self-publish because none label wanted to produce such a "violent" record. 7/10.

The Freestyle Fellowship — To Whom It May Concern...

Debut album for this Los Angeles hip-hop group of five elements, five MCs, Eddie "Aceyalone" Hayes Jr., Michael "Mikah 9" Troy, Ornette "Self Jupiter" Glenn, Mtulazaji "P.E.A.C.E." Davis, and James "J Sumbi" Sumbi, the first and the last are the only ones whose bars stand out clearly, the others spit out quite confusing things: you struggle to understand them, their senseless lyricism is almost indecipherable, I mean, even they don't know what they said here, seriously.

Wu-Tang Clan — Wu-Tang Demo Tape [bootleg]

Demo that anticipates the first legendary Wu-Tang album. Beyond the sound quality – basically poor – it's a discreet level tape that has some good notes and some hints of what you can hear in the first LP, for example "Bring da Ruckus", a great dark, heavy, rough boom bap. "Cuttin Headz" instead is shown for the ODB solo album. RZA leads the games in a dominant way even as a rapper and pulls down some solos that, however, aren't up to the best of the other members of the crew, despite a decent production: "It's All About Me" and "Wutang Master" have a good dark, jazzy, tense, rough, underground beats due to successful samples. "Problems", retrospectly, recalls the iconic track of the Legend AZ, the producer also samples 1982 "All This Love" by DeBarge, the same R&B track sampled by Cruz for "9 Lives". Ol' Dirty returns to help RZA in "The Wu is Comin Thru", a hardcore cut on rough, gloomy, moody, tight rhythm, a slightly better song than the others.

Weak sound quality, raw production, dirty, hardly noticeable, discrete lyrics, this demo appears as a unique RZA effort between production and rapping with some good guests of what isn't yet the Wu-Tang Clan.

Freeway & The Jacka — Write My Wrongs [mixtape]

Promotional mixtape preceding the collaborative album between rappers Freeway from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and The Jacka from Pittsburg, California. Behind the keyboards, among others, there are Jeffro, Bedrock, RobLo, DJ Toure, Erk tha Jerk, Lee Majors, Pakslap and Statik Selektah, the mixing is entrusted to DJ Child. Among the guests stand out the names of Freddie Gibbs, Jahdan, Husaiah, Phil da Agony, Hollow Tip and T-Wayne.

El Camino & Bozack Morris — Saint Muerte

Produced by Bozack Morris, Elcamino's fourth studio album in two years, is opened by a skit on a slow and dark jazzy rhythm that precedes "Real Shit", another dark, simple and essential rhythm with a decent delivery that I don't consider a successful song. The third track is "No Smoke": Morris' production remains dark and jazzy, essential and tight, the song has a functional hook and a good delivery by Elcamino, to which is added Benny the Butcher which destroys the piece. This is the finest tune of the tape in my humble opinion. The subsequent tracks fail to live up to this one, including those with Rome Streetz ("Black Gestapos") and Flee Lord ("Coke Brothers"), but they're pretty solid thanks to an inspired delivery by the rapper and to dark and simple jazzy rhythms provided by Morris (except the ballad beat of the fifth song).

3rd Bass — The Cactus Album

When the Beastie Boys leave Def Jam to sign with Capitol, the Simmons label executives are forced to looking for a replacement: a trio of improvised Jewish white rappers are replaced by a duo of improvised white rappers (only MC Serch is Jewish). Plus DJ Richie Rich. The record has a good jazzy production with peaks of excellence, also thanks to extrovert and florid samples that absorb vibes from many different genres of the seventies, however most of the tracks have a simple and minimal beat, with trivial variations towards more frenetic and urgent ("Soul in the Hole", "Triple Stage Darkness", "Brooklyn-Queens"), with merely functional scratched hooks and excellent jazzy bridges on the hooks (dope smooth jazz in "Monte Hall", sensational that of "Steppin' to the AM").

Boogie Boys — Survival of the Freshest

With poetic generosity, most of the reviewers here have awarded a minimum of two stars. Severe, but fair judgment. These eight tracks are rather weak, with simple funky pop dance rhythms – even too much simple, up to the annoyance – and a bland rapping delivery, without considering the messy and pop hooks, sometimes R&B, always banal. "Run It" is a pretty annoying electro attempt in its softness. They try them all without success: from hardcore delivery, to jazzy bridges, more funky rhythms, skinny rhythms, dance pop bridges, even the ballad ("Share My World"), honeyed song completely out of place. 4/10.

O.C. — A New Dawn: 2nd Phase

Album paired with "Same Moon Same Sun", even known as "1st Phase". Both efforts are released under D.I.T.C. Studios and Slice-of-Spice Records in limited editions. Throughout the course of this album, OC seems not to be inspired, a solo album where it remains isolated in his anonymous flow. He usually pulls out at least one banger from his album, he did it for pretty much his entire career, but here he struggles.