Lord Finesse — Return of the Funky Man

In 1991, Lord Finesse split from his former partner DJ Mike Smooth and he split from his former record label, Wild Pitch Records. Around this time, Finesse signs with Giant Records, subsidiary label of the major Warner Bros. Records thanks to Ice-T, and publishes the single "Return of the Funky Man". In 1992, Finesse released his second CD, released by Giant Records, Reprise Records and distributed by Warner Bros.

Lord Finesse is good on the mic, so what? I already knew this thanks to "Funky Technician". The main enigmatic problem of this effort lies in the search for different themes in addition to the braggadocio. The rare passages that vary from this theme, are evident fillers in the middle of this long — basically smoothness — path. Nothing to say about the boom bap funky jazzy production invented by Lord Finesse, Showbiz, Diamond D, Latif, DJ Aladdin, SLEJ and Petawane. Despite the presence of West Coast producers, the former Ice-T beatmakers DJ Aladdin and SLEJ, the music set sounds purely New York, excellent.

In particular the tape boasts a perfect Diamond D in "King Midas" style, every beat that he touches here becomes gold. Showbiz ("Return of the Funky Man" is a great cut) and Finesse himself do well ("Fat for the 90's" has a wonderful funky boom bap on which him and AG unleash, smooth enjoyable tune), the latter is at the debut behind the keyboards. To appreciate the dope jazzy bridges on the hooks of funky productions, however unfortunately the central theme is a bit repetitive.

While not having absolute bangers, there are some high points in the production. "Yes You May" presents a good essential jazzy boom bap invented by Showbiz, with a tight looped sample from Samba Soul's "Mambo No. 5" on this cut that answers to "Can I Kick It?" of the ATCQ, AG is fit, Finesse is also good, but Percee P steals the show and kills the track with a dope, smoothness, technical and fast delivery. He also runs well on the "Kicking Flavor With My Man" final joint.

Diamond D drops an amazing jazzy funky boom bap for "That's How Smooth I Am", beautiful sample from Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Lone Ranger", the perfect musical carpet for his friend Finesse who thanks and runs for over five minutes; masterpiece. "Fuck 'Em" has a jazzy boom bap made funky, beautiful. Sample from Alan Silvestri soundtrack of the movie "The Doberman Gang" (1972), Finesse flows fluid, technical, clean, dope for five minutes, thanks also to the velvet carpet that gives Diamond D, with a functional chorus that doesn't need the jazzy bridge to enhance the song.

Rating: 8.4/10.