Joell Ortiz — Monday

Eighth studio album for Joell Ortiz, fifth solo. Production is handled by The Lasso, Heatmakerz, Apollo Brown, Nottz, JUSTICE League, Hesami and Big KRIT. Blakk Soul and Big KRIT are the only guests on the tape. On a more melodic production than usual, excluding his pearl-album with Apollo Brown, Ortiz evolves his pen game to the next level and manages to improve himself as a lyricist by dropping inspired and dynamic tracks. The results are particularly noticeable, especially in the first half of the tape, while in the second the quality falls after "Jamaican Food": overall, it's a nice project, even if his interpretation often approaches spoken word rather than pure rap, and the rapper insists on this hook-singing thing, which doesn't work. Published by Mello Music, it's one of his best documents. 7/10.

Armor of God — Armor of God

Warcloud, with all its many aliases, has always been one of the most active Wu Killa Beez members and over the decades he has started and taken part in many collateral projects to his solo activity, perhaps only Killah Priest or the ubiquitous Rhyme Recca are in more groups than him. The MC of Los Angeles in 2019 founds a new musical collaboration that takes the name of Armor of God and which, unlike most Warcloud groups, it boasts only one other member, Pro the Leader.

State Property — The Chain Gang Vol. 2

Second album in two years by Philadelphia rap group State Property, consisting of Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Peedi Crack, the official duo Young Gunz (Young Chris and Neef Buck) and the unofficial duo O & Sparks (Oschino and Omillio Sparks). This is also the latest CD from the Roc-A-Fella group. Just Blaze only produces the bonus track, most of the production is entrusted to Chad Hamilton, who builds the set together with Digga, D-Dot, S Dot, Boola, The Alchemist, Black Key, Ruggedness, Bink, Henny Loc, Warryn Campbell, Spike & Jamahl. Guests are Jay-Z, Dirt McGirt aka Ol' Dirty Bastard, who has just signed to Roc-A-Fella, Twista and Lil Cease.

State Property — State Property [soundtrack]

This is the soundtrack of the movie "State Property", a hood movie released in 2002, produced by Dame Dash and Phyllis Cedar and distributed by Lions Gate Films. The film tells the story of a gang of thugs who want to get out of ghetto poverty through drug dealing and rap in Philadelphia, and the album replicates the plot.

Freeway & Statik Selektah — Statik Free EP

EP that probably don't pass the test of time, but it's pretty enjoyable. Fresh East Coast boom bap provided by Statik, hardcore flow spitted by Freeway with some guests. Mac Miller gets his props here just going by flow, follows a smoothness choice with a good verse spit by Reek — not at Free level. Term gets his spot where Lil' Fame asks-n-gets a really heavy beat, there's nothing better for him and exploits it to the full: Termanology goes undertone, this beat isn't his field, while Fame is at home here. Hook that pays homage to the M.O.P. themselves, Free closes that track, is at ease. With "All Kinds of 'Em" it's hard to predict a better closure: Statik brings out a jazzy-electro-technical mid-2000 boom bap, worthy of Daft Punk, Freeway delivers as if there were no tomorrow, The Jacka lightens the load on the chorus, then delivers slow, light, follows the beat as if it were a calm oceanic current, Husalah completes the work with a bit of healthy gangsta-ignorant shit. 7/10.

Lord Infamous — Solo Tape

At around eighteen y/o, Ricky "Lord Infamous" Dunigan releases his first solo cassette, with the help of peers DJ Paul and Juicy J, in what is effectively one of the first records to present all the original Three 6 Mafia members.

Beastie Boys — Licensed to Ill

In 1979, the hardcore band The Young Aborigenes was formed, consisting of Michael "Mike D" Diamond, Kate Schellenbach, John Berry and Jeremy Shatan, who began playing in New York punk clubs. A few years later, at a Bad Brains concert, Diamond met Adam "MCA" Yauch, a student who played bass with the intention of creating a band: Diamond invited Yauch to participate in his band's auditions and decided to include him in the band in place of the unaware Shatan. The new band Beastie Boys was born.

OutKast — Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik

OutKast represents the Atlanta scene with their debut album: on music made mainly live by the affiliated production team Organized Noize and some instrumentalists, André Benjamin aka André 3000 and Antwan "Big Boi" Patton bring themes such as gangsterism, weed, pimpin', women and bravado with socio-conscious and political traits.

Freeway — Philadelphia Freeway

Debut studio album by Leslie "Freeway" Pridgen, rapper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose moniker is taken from drug dealer "Freeway" Rick Ross. The rapper meets fellow citizen Beanie Sigel in a club, the two become friends and decide to help each other enter a label: Sigel signs with Roc-A-Fella and proposes his friend to Jay-Z, which leads Freeway to debut in "The Dynasty" (2000) in a song together with him, Sigel and Memphis Bleek. Hova signs the young MC with Roc-A-Fella and puts him among the main interpreters of the State Property group together with Sigel and other Philadelphia rappers. The year after releasing an album with the group, Freeway made his solo debut.

Scarface — The Diary

The third album consecrates Scarface among the best hip-hop artists of the period. The production is handled by Mike Dean, NO Joe and Scarface himself, Ice Cube is the only accredited guest on "Hand of the Dead Body" and on the same track, Devin the Dude offers an uncredited hook.

Westside Gunn & Conway — Hall and Nash EP

Westside Gunn & Conway the Machine appear on the same album under the name Hall-N-Nash.

Big Daddy Kane — It's a Big Daddy Thing

One year after the great success of his debut disk, Big Daddy Kane returns with a new album. While Marley Marl produced entirely is first CD, this one presents beats from Big Daddy Kane himself, Marley Marl, Teddy Riley, Mister Cee, Prince Paul and Easy Mo Bee. The guests are DJ Red Alert, Scoob Lover, Ant Live, Nice & Smooth, Blue Magic, Mister Cee, Chuck Sanely and Scrap Lover.

El Camino — Walking on Water

A pretty interesting debut studio album for the last knight of the army from Buffalo, El Camino is on the Griselda team and brings you Griselda lyrics and Griselda sounds.

Snoop Dogg — I Wanna Thank Me

This type of product comes when you have lost attention in hip-hop circles, no one talks about you anymore and you feel that you haven't received and aren't receiving enough flowers. I want to thank me, dogs I'm there too, I'm Snoop, the good old Snoop. Dogg, as the cover shows, a clever tribute to the paintings commissioned by an advertising company to the painter Cassius Marcellus Coolidge or much more simply, a "let's take one of those cool dogs drawings and replace them with my figure everywhere".

Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force — Lost Generation

There's a lot, a lot, a lot wrong with this record. After the expiration of his contract with EMI, Bambaataa finds himself releasing material as an independent, publishing with Hot Productions, Miami dance label. This tape consists of thirteen long tracks that all last between five and eight minutes (except one randomly at three), for a total of one hour and twenty. Far too much. The production is essential, the bass vibrates for the electro beat, the drum is old and difficult, and this is enough to support the rap of the performer. The lyrics are coarse and shoddy, half of the album is all about sexual themes and bars, over music that is deleterious and unnerving. The album was born old, even the reissue of "Planet Rock" sounds cumbersome and rusty, little to do with the original song. 2/10.

Gravediggaz — 6 Feet Deep

In the late eighties and early nineties, Robert Diggs and Paul Huston leave the Tommy Boy label, both unhappy: Diggs's career was nipped in the bud due to plaintive commercial needs of the label, while the records of the Huston group (Stetsasonic) don't get a commercial response equal to the excellent response received from the critics, the label doesn't promote their records, which sell few copies compared to their potential. Towards the end of 1990, Huston aka Prince Paul is tired of making beats for De La Soul: he decides to call Stetsasonic's MC Arnold "Frukwan" Hamilton, rapper Anthony "Poetic" Berkeley, who signed to his fledgling Dew Doo Man Records, which had secured a deal with Russell Simmons' Rush Associated Labels shortly before closing, and manages to reconnect with Diggs aka RZA, whom he met during the time of both at Tommy Boy: the concept of the record is an idea of Prince Paul, while the founder of the Wu-Tang Clan is credited for the choice of the name. The four boys take different monikers for the making of the album: Frukwan is The Gatekeeper, RZA is The RZArector, Too Poetic is The Grym Reaper, finally Prince Paul is The Undertaker.

Big Daddy Kane — Long Live the Kane

Antonio "Big Daddy Kane" Hardy was born in Brooklyn, New York. In high school, he met DJ Mister Cee and later became friends with Biz Markie. In the mid-1980s, Kane and Biz joined Marley Marl's Juice Crew, and Kane signed to Prism in 1987. That same year, the rapper released his debut single, "Raw," produced by Marl. "Get Into It" was also released later. Daddy Kane and Biz Markie's singles were so successful that the label decided to focus primarily on hip-hop and changed its name to Cold Chillin' Records.

Scarface — The World is Yours

Second solo studio album for Scarface, rapper who in the same year also released a record with the Geto Boys. In the cover, the boy brings an important reference to the De Palma film to which he owes the moniker.

Cold Crush Brothers — Troopers

Grandmaster Caz is one of the pioneers who have done several good things for the growth of the hip hop music scene in the seminal scene of the early eighties. Formerly known as Casanova Fly, he's the first to DJ and spit rap at the same time, and his lyrics for "Rapper's Delight" are stolen by Sugarhill Gang.

Killarmy — Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars

Killarmy (pr. "killa-army") is the best-known affiliated group of the Wu-Tang Clan, one of the earliest and one of the most successful. The group is founded by General Wise aka Wisegod Allah, the manager of Killarmy: between 1991 and 1992, RZA, ODB and Ghostface Killah move to live in Steubenville, Ohio and meet General Wise. When the boys who would go on to form the Wu-Tang Clan return to Staten Island around 1993, they keep their ties to Ohio and some of their friends there later become Wu-affiliates. Wise is later killed in 1997, Ghostface dedicates to him the track "Wise (In the Rain)", destined to "Supreme Clientele" (2000) originally, then inserted in the compilation "Hidden Darts" (2006).

A.G. — The Dirty Version

Andre "AG" Barnes decides to release his first soloist album in 1999 under Silva Dom Records, after being part of the duo Show & AG for years. DITC are a major part of the album, with everyone on it except the late Big L. The music is realized by Lord Finesse, Showbiz, Buckwild, Diamond D, AG, Steve "Bundy" Wade, Wali World, Hehdkrack, DJ Premier, Amed "DJ Timbalan" Harris, Garth Mitchel, ACE and Gritty Tracks. The guests are Fat Joe, Diamond D, KRS-One, Big Pun, The Ghetto Dwellas, Hehdkrack, Mr. Mudd, Kool Chuck, Blake Carrington, Misery, Reality, Doe, Big Cle, OC, Guru, Wali World, Teck 9, Firehead and Murda Cap.

Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force — Planet Rock: The Album

Afrika Bambaataa, whose real name for nearly four decades was mistakenly believed to be Kevin Donovan due to a member of the Harlem Underground Band being credited on "Zulu Nation Throwdown", a song performed by Afrika Bambaataa, was born Lance Taylor to Jamaican and Barbadian immigrants, growing up in the Bronx. Joining a gang that became known as the Black Spades, the young man rose through the ranks to become one of the gang's leaders, leading the gang to become the largest in the city. After a trip to Africa, he decides to change his name to Afrika Bambaataa Aasim, inspired by a Zulu chief after also watching the film "Zulu" (1964), and abandons violence, leaving the gang and forming the association Bronx River Organization. Inspired by Kool Herc's hip-hop parties, Bambaataa begins to organize his own parties in 1976 or 1977.

Eightball & MJG — Comin' Out Hard

Debut album for the Memphis duo composed of Premro Vonzellaire "Eightball" Smith and Marlon Jermaine "MJG" Goodwin, who met at school about ten years earlier.

 

Ghostface Killah — Bulletproof Wallets

Third studio album by Ghostface Killah. RZA handles most of the production, Tony Starks produces two beats under the GFK moniker, the other beats are created by LILZ, PLX, Chris Liggio, Al Chemist, Carlos Brody and Underdawgz. The guests are Raekwon, Method Man and The RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Prodigal Sunn of Sunz of Man, Killa Sin of Killarmy, Trife of Theodore Unit, Superb of American Cream Team, Takitha, Twiz, Carl Thomas and Ruff Endz.