Kool G Rap renounces the production of Marley Marl, probably engaged in other projects, so Eric B comes to his rescue. He's not a producer or a DJ or something like that, but he has procured a contract to Rakim and since then he lives on income: Eric B procures him Large Professor, who produces the entire album, except "Rikers Island" (by Marley Marl), "Erase Racism" (by Biz Markie & Cool V) and "The Polo Club" (by DJ Polo).
The production of Large Professor, also helped by G Rap, is excellent: he creates raw, tight and fast rhythms with a simple style and excellent jazzy and funky samples, providing a fantastic sound, even timeless. Above this minimal boom bap, Kool G Rap shows a high level and solid lyricism, focusing on criminal, braggadocio and gangsta themes and delivering these fun, threatening and intelligent bars with an excellent NY storytelling, a deeply hardcore style, technically fantastic, and a multisyllabic, smooth and unstoppable dope flow, varying the speed of its delivery depending to the needs and dominating every single track with an impressive ease, which embarrasses all the other rappers.
"Streets of New York" presents police sirens, sax sample dope and skinny and deadly drum machine, solid and strong in the background. G Rap opens the disc by debuting with "in the streets of New York", one of the most beautiful openings of the year. It continues with his slow, smoothness, technically clean, pricelessly gorgeous, dope flow. The jazzy vibes here are wonderful, brilliant rhythm of Large Professor who finds a suitable sound, it wasn't easy. Great masterpiece.
The title track boasts an excellent fast, frenetic, simple, minimal rhythm, with a lean and regular drum machine and an excellent smooth, quick and clean delivery of the rapper, sublime effort of Large Pro who makes a sick beat. Another classic. "Talk Like Sex" sees G Rap's vicious and hard cut, the emcee delivers slow and crisp on a lean, simple and tight production, an excellent minimal boom bap of Large Professor.
"Erase Racism" has a skinny, minimal and simplistic rhythm provided by Biz Markie and Cool V, lean, syncopated and slow drum machine, G Rap delivers slow and silky, functional lame chorus that brings the piece down from the classic status, despite the excellent performance of the guests Big Daddy Kane and Biz himself. "Kool Is Back" presents one of the best flows of the MC on this album, smoothness, clear and fast on a frenetic rhythm with a fast, heavy and lean drum machine.
"Rikers Island" is completely detached from the other cuts of the project and perhaps inserted here a little randomly, it's a 1987 song and the only production of Marley Marl: introductory scratched hook, tight rhythm, simple, different from the rest, it's cheerful, somehow cool, with a lean and regular drum machine, Kool G Rap delivers smooth and dope, making another amazing cut.
With this critically acclaimed sophomore, Kool G Rap cemented his reputation as a skilled storyteller and as godfather of the mafioso rap: the disk puts precise stakes that will become the standard for the West Coast gangsta rap subgenre - unlike the gangsta, the mafia rap has East Coast hues and is more cinematic, focusing more on crime movie and TV metaphors to coloring its street adventures - and officially establishes it, automatically earning a very important place in the history of hip hop and gangsta rap. Despite having some burrs ("Jive Talk" and the hip house cut "The Polo Club"), it's an overall strong, hard, energetic and fresh album, an almost perfect sequel to the debut and one of the best records of the year, classic.
Rating: 9/10.
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