Parrish Smith releases his second solo LP after breaking up with Erick Sermon, two years after his debut. The "s" of the title are all replaced with the dollar symbol, after all Parrish Making Dollars is the meaning behind the acronym of his moniker. Smith's Hit Squad supports the project. Behind the keyboards appear 8-Off (aka Agallah), Charlie Marotta (EPMD engineer), Solid Scheme, Fabian Hamilton and DJ Scratch. The guests are Das EFX, M.O.P. and Nocturnal. Parrish's lyric game doesn't take great steps forward, but the problems that bury the disc are in the production and above all in the execution of the emcee.
PMD attempts to follow NYC's hardcore and mafia scene and starts off on the right foot, immediately placing a "Scarface" skit and spitting regularly on a normal jazz boom bap. The record wobbles, but when Das EFX arrives in "What Cha Gonna Do", the whole product seems to take the right turn: the beatmaker Solid Scheme extracts an excellent soundscape, the best on PMD's record, thanks to a piano sample that returns a gloomy, sad and melancholy mood, and the lead rapper's bars sound better on a skeletal and lively drum, also supported by the fresh, if no longer current, style of the Das EFX. "Never Watered Down" is the worst rhythm proposed by 8-Off: PMD isn't quite in shape and the beat chosen here by the producer doesn't help him, boom bap is dark, there are good somber jazz vibes and a plucked guitar, but the drum is mediocre and the rapper performs effortlessly.
Solid Scheme pulls out another good beat for the seventh track, completely suited to the style of PMD on this CD: the rhythm is boom bap, there's a tired and listless drum midtempo, lacking in strength, defective, almost downtempo, and Smith's rapping is tired, bland and weak. Parrish is practically mumbling twenty years before he was a world trend on track number eight too, on a tired, bland, slow boom bap with a tired drum midtempo, he delivers a dead rap, he's a genius. There's an interlude between this song and "It's the Ones" and it's fitting that there's some sort of interruption before the M.O.P. arrive, even if it doesn't take away the paradoxical situation of spitting with a cadaveric flow in one song and having the energy of M.O.P. in the next one.
Fabian Hamilton's rhythm is questionable, the drum is hard but it's tired, distorted, it doesn't have the strength to beat up and the samples chosen are bad, it's evident that Sony hasn't budgeted for this new album of half of the EPMD. This is supposed to be an easy banger, but the beat can't handle the rapping power of Lil' Fame and Billy Danze, ending up being overwhelmed by the energy of the guests, even if they're going in slow motion, because this isn't quite their ideal beat. Two meager choices follow with bad productions and an even worse rapping before the final cut, which is equal to the number four produced by 8-Off with the addition of the Das EFX.
The album runs for three quarters of an hour during which PMD isn't doing anything and isn't doing it right. The guests carry the album forward along with some rhythm that feels wasted here: take "Rugged-N-Raw", it's a track that goes unnoticed even after several plays of the whole LP. Only the Das EFX can make you appreciate it, putting some energy into the last song to the point of making me re-evaluate the work of 8-Off, since half of its selection is mirrored by this track: the boy brings out an excellent melodic sample, which is taken from the soulful cover of a masterpiece signed by a couple of kids, Lennon & McCartney, the rhythm takes on cinematic contours and spaghetti-western vibes, the vivacity, cheerfulness and lightheartedness of Das EFX highlights both the goodness of production and the absence of life in PMD's performance.
Parrish Smith remains in Sony's orbit and distributes the CD with Relativity, not getting the same response he received from his debut. According to the AllMusic website this isn't only the best PMD record, even better than all of Erick Sermon's records and on par with the greatest EPMD albums, but it's also one of the best hip-hop projects of 1996, ahead of "It Was Written" by Nas, "The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory" by Makaveli aka 2Pac, "Illadelph Halflife" by The Roots, "The Awakening" by Lord Finesse, "Soul on Ice" by Ras Kass, "Episodes of a Hustla" by Big Noyd, "Firing Squad" by M.O.P., "Nocturnal" by Heltah Skeltah, "Stakes Is High" by De La Soul, "Beats, Rhymes and Life" by A Tribe Called Quest, and like "Ironman" by Ghostface Killah. "ATLiens" by OutKast, "Ridin Dirty" by UGK, "Hell on Earth" by Mobb Deep and "The Coming" by Busta Rhymes.
In cases like this I'm reminded of the joke of a comedian who said: "I envy you, lucky you who don't understand ****!" But then how would I do without those guys and their random stars [and words?], before seeing so many for this disk on their sites, this was an anonymous review of a paragraph packed with the names of producers and guests and nothing else, I didn't even want to write anything on this PMD record, because it doesn't deserve, it doesn't really deserve. I love you guys.
Erick and Parrish will return to making money the following year. Their solo efforts may interest fans of the duo, but this album is totally irrelevant and I would add even the worst of all those published. There are M.O.P., there are Das EFX, but it's not really worth it. If you are a true fan of mumble rap, here you can find some of the roots of the subgenre. But in the end, where can't you find any (especially in the EPMD discography)? Sad to say, PMD would be revered as royalty in these times.
Rating: 4/10.
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