UTD — Manifest Destiny

In the early nineties, the Brooklyn hip-hop trio Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD) signs with Payday / FFRR and released a couple of singles between 1994 and 1995. Then, the group formed by brothers Dante "Mos Def", Denard "DCQ" and Casey "Ces" Smith, is dumped by the label. A few years later, in the late nineties, Mos Def forms another group together with his brother DCQ and other members, creating Medina Green.

Rejected by Payday in the mid-nineties, already bootlegged years before, in 2004, through the label of DCQ Illson Media, the Urban Thermo Dynamics LP is officially published. It's not the underground treasure you might expect by reading that Mos Def is one of the authors, the brothers rapping with a simple style on an acceptable production with no particular twists. There are no guests and the music is made by J. Prins, YZ, The Vibe Chemist Backspin, Showbiz & Diamond D: the set is so cohesive that it seems to have been made by a single author, while the DITC rhythms are indistinguishable. Discreet effort, in the average by mid-nineties standards. 6/10.