Hus Kingpin — The Firm

Following the Portishead tribute, Hus Kingpin pays tribute to New York hip-hop supergroup The Firm.

This tape is made up of thirteen songs that pay homage directly and indirectly to the joint venture formed at the time by Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown and Nature, for a total of about thirty-five minutes. The production, brilliantly created by Macapella, Scary Hour, Prynce P, Kencussion, Stu Bangas, Khrysis, Sean Zeon, Blaq Knight and DJ Tako, is based on the typical sound of the mid-nineties hip-hop scene, clear, clean, glossy, jazz boom bap, in short, it's the soundscape that should have been contained in the original Firm album.

The music chosen by Hus here is sensational, when he doesn't keep the few original good rhythms, for example that of "Affirmative Action", considered the first song signed by the New York supergroup and not present on the 1997 LP. At the expense of a not completely inspired and effective lyricism, the tape flows much more fluidly than one would expect, thanks to a slow and velvet rap style and the clever choice of inserting short songs, and boasts several high profile guests, such as Max B and Canibus, which offers a salient point in "Desperados", a song of the same name as that of almost twenty-five years earlier. 7/10.