Debut album for PHD, acronym for Poet & Hot Day. Wilbur "Blaq Poet" Bass is an old-school veteran from Queensbridge who's around the hip-hop circuit since the Bridge Wars, dropping "Beat You Down", dissing towards KRS-One and his Boogie Down Productions. The comparisons with KRS could go on for a long time, like the Bronx emcee Poet also decides to place himself on the cover with firearms in his hands four years after Lawrence Parker's debut album with BDP.
Around 1990, The Poet forms a rap duo with Dante "DJ Hot Day" Franklin and the Queensbridge group deals with Tuff City Records. Hot Day handles the entire music, Cormega is the unique guest of the whole vinyl. Here, the production is quite simplistic and minimal, with rough, minimal rhythms, sometimes rockin', sometimes extravagant or dark, with a syncopated and sparse drum machine and some successful samples.
On these variegated beats provided by Hot Day, Blaq Poet delivers hard and raw bars with a hardcore and urgent style on the fastest productions. To note, the debut of Cormega in "Set It Off", in my opinion the best tune of this record: simple production, dark due to a sample of ESG's "UFO" turned in a pretty extravagant way, functional chorus with dark female sample, good delivery by Poet, Mega goes away with a syncopated and smoothness delivery and a good dope flow.
Rating: 6/10.
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