Second album for the legend Melle Mel, arrives in 1989. Too late. The debut was already late, but the sophomore is really far from the current scene. Everyone passed in front of him. Despite everything, this record is clearly better than the debut of five years earlier. The production is made with minimal funky rhythms and jazzy bridges, the hooks aren't a revealing part and they only do their job, part of the weight of the album falls on the shoulders of Melle Mel, who manages to deliver worthily for fifty minutes. It's fluent, but you feel that he's struggling to go at a higher speed than usual, the beats help him, but they cannot do miracles. There are some honest attempts ("White Lines II", "Old School", "Piano", "Free Style", "Revenge") that stands above the mediocre tracks, supported by sublime samples (Isaac Hayes, Bob James, JBs, Babe Ruth, Earth, Wind & Fire, James Brown, the usual "UFO" by ESG and also some rap acts of the caliber of Schoolly D, Rakim, Mantronix and Public Enemy) and the MC tries new delivery types, however, his tracks are a bit too long: except the final one, no one goes under four and ten minutes, it's exaggerated, with a more compact duration, let's say around 35 minutes, it'd also have been a three and a half. 6/10.
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