O.C. — Jewelz

The second effort published by Omar Credle is a good, coherent, solid LP, with some great moments, even though he seems to have lost energy.

OC still keep it on the street, I don't give about money — he'll change his mind with the next one, a few years later — he brings the best producers in New York (in addition to D.I.T.C. in-house producers Buckwild, Lord Finesse and Showbiz, there's DJ Premier with four tracks & Da Beatminerz), but they all disappoint more or less, without exception ("Win the G"'s among the weakest rhythms provided by Premier), with this more soulful and dark/bleak beats, smooth, refined, half R&B, less raw, less jazzy, lush, light or commercial, but all bland and simplistic, never inspired.

Organized Konfusion, Big L, and Freddie Foxxx are the guests in this project, but their songs have something wrong. Foxxx tryina exalting himself in his spots, but "M.U.G." has a lack of energy, simplistic shit, light boom bap by Preemo, and the other one's the aforementioned "Win the G". "Dangerous" is a party cut badly made with a disturbing production — hard to listen to — realized by Beatminerz, despite Big L. And to conclude, War Games, often quoted as a "failure". It's a failure, actually, because it'd become a classic: DJ Premier on the beat, OC ft. Organized Konfusion on the mic. The half of Gang Starr puts out a skeletal, brute, twisted, wannabe jazzy, almost nervous rhythm, that remains unbearably funky; however, rappers deliver well, so this joint is solid. Theme's boring, tending to brazen braggadocio, sometimes Credle seems bored in his technical conscious flow that allows him to save the songs even when they're not lyrically good. Even more accessible than the previous one, it deserves a couple of spins.

Released by Payday and FFRR, distributed by PolyGram, the album is warmly welcomed by specialized critics, that praised the street themes of the author, his pen ability, his fluid rapping and the sharp choice of rhythms — despite the disk runs pretty slow in some moments due to the production — nevertheless, the record is a flop in sales, not going beyond the top 20 among rap albums and leaded by the single "Far from Yours", #12 on the rap singles chart.

Highlights: the intro's an excellent jazzy prelude to "My World", instant classic in OC discography only because of Primo and his own proven classic formula (check out AZ's "The Format" to understand): boom bap dark jazzy phenomenal, smoothness, OC delivers three verses that leaves much to be desired but it doesn't matter, it's still among his finest [cuts]. The title track is also there, possibly the banger, amazing dark jazzy production provided by Lord Finesse, great cut. It comes after "You & Yours" (falling jazzy beat well guessed, props to DJ Ogee here, decent hook that sounds better than the previous ones; good flow dropped by Credle), and "Hypocryte" (Buckwild finds a pretty nice soulful sample echoing in the background).

Rating: 7.5/10.