In 2002 the beatmakers team 140 Productions releases its first CD, "School Yard Funk Art: Volume 1 - Shaolin HIp-Hop". The members of 140 Productions are Chapel, then also part of Dom Pachino's Team Napalm, Just 1, Cheesy Rat (he performs on the album under the moniker Charlie Strangles), Shortre and T. Diddy. The disc features 19 tracks for a total of 52 minutes of material and among the many performers, many come from Otherized FAM: Q Molly aka Molly-Q, Crunch aka Crunch Lo, Lounge Lo and Wiggs aka Shawn Wigs, are part of the group, Clocka and Shade aka Lighter Shade are affiliated with the group, and Franky Bottz then took part in an Otherized FAM record some year later. The other guys are friends with little or no experience, except Wise of Stetsasonic which appears in "Lock N Load" alongside Chapel and SOD.
After listening to several disappointing Wu-Tang Killa Beez projects, this one is incredibly good. The soundscape of 140 Productions is precise and attentive, made of boom bap with elegant jazz loops, accessible dusty drums, deep bass and echoing soul samples. This selection allows guys who could go unnoticed like Otherized FAM, to rap with a feeling of enviable fluidity and smoothness on always different and pleasant rhythms. The brevity of the songs is another strong point of the disc, restoring freshness to the product also thanks to the ability of the performers and support singers: among the latter stands out Lenore, who sings a hook paying homage to a sixties pop group, and then cuts out a solo track that's a splendid house filler in "Hypnotized". Intro and outro are also wonderful instrumentals.
Before listening to the eponymous Lighter Shade EP released in 1999, I would have stated with certainty that the apex of Otherized FAM is amalgamated here. It's still a solid collection of songs and ultimately, one of the best Killa Bees albums released in the 2000s, it's sensational that this effort is still almost completely ignored by hip-hop fans. 7.5/10.
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