Inspectah Deck — Tune Raider Jackin Flows 2K [mixtape]

Inspectah Deck aka Rebel INS born Jason Hunter of Park Hill, Clifton, Staten Island, should always be named when discussing the best rapper of the nineties, along with friends he grew up with, Dennis Coles, Clifford Smith and Corey Woods. He's considered to be one of the best lyricists of the nineties, the most flourishing period for hip-hop, and with this mixtape, the Inspector reminds us why.

Now, forget the cover, which seems to have been done by the same guy who does the Cappadonna cover, where the emcee of Czarface seems to come directly from the fourth chapter of a b-movie that parodies The Matrix and Metal Gear Solid, in which he plays the friend of the co-star who helps the star of the film for 3/4 of the time and then betrays him to go with the villain on duty in exchange for a few more dollars.

This is a "50 Cent mixtape", the guy picks some beats from other artists and spits his bars on it for a minute, two minutes at the most. At the same time, it's not a "50 Cent mixtape" though, because Deck chooses 16 excellent rhythms here: this is what anyone should expect from a Mixtape, at least that kind of tapes. The emcee delivers bars while having fun over the rhythms of Digga, B-Money, Kanye West, Yogi, L.E.S., Lauryn Hill, Easy Mo Bee, Vada Nobles, RZA, True Master, Dr. Dre, Nottz, EZ Elpee and Shock G, derived from the original songs of some of the best hip-hop artists of their era, such as Cam'ron, Prodigy, 50 Cent, Kanye West, 2Pac, G Dep, The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Nas, AZ, Lauryn Hill, GZA, Method Man, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, The LOX, Scarface, Royal Flush, Ghostface Killah and Common.

Listening to Rollie Fingerz running through the beats of popular songs such as "Flashing Lights", "So Many Tears", "I Love the Dough", "Life's a Bitch" and "Let Me Ride" is amazing, plus he feels like a necessary addition in the Wu tracks "Shadowboxin" by The Genius and "Fish" by Tony Starks. It's easily Inspectah Deck's best mixtape, arriving almost casually over two decades after its artistic peak, and without any difficulty, even the best thing in its entire catalog, LPs included. 8/10.