In 2019, New York rapper Omar "OC" Credle" choose to drop a ton of his material fishing among unreleased tracks, demos, rare tracks, remixes, freestyle, mixtape exclusives and pearls. The production credits Buckwild, DJ Eclipse, FBoom, Kemp, Mark Pearson, John McGann, DJ Riz, DJ Ogee, Da Beatminerz, Eddie James, Showbiz, T-Ray, Ron G, Ric Nice, Soul Supreme, Apollo Brown, Moodswing9, M-Phazes, Vinyl Reanimators, Chilloutist and DJ Celory. The guests are Page the Hand Grenade, Poops, Prince Po, MC Serch, Pharoahe Monch, F.T. of Street Smartz, Red Hot Lover Tone, Nas, Chubb Rock, Ron G, Chef Raekwon, Killa Sin, KRS-One, Biggie Smalls, Show, Fat Joe, Lord Finesse, Big L, AG, Diamond D, Large Professor, Organized Konfusion, Kool Keith, Mr. Complex and Unique. 51 tracks, almost four hours of music, released under Mushine Inc.
The compilation album is opened by one of first tracks of "O-Zone Originals EP" that is one of the most successful cuts released by OC in the early 2010s, "Would You Believe?". It's a beat realized by Buckwild, dark, gloomy, dystopian production, accompanied by the classic Christmas bells, it's an amazing effort of considerable workmanship of Buck on which OC starts well and delivers more smoothly than usual, albeit without high notes, but only the beat is worth of listening. The disk continues strong, with the songs already heard in the previous EPs, the second and third tracks are quite accessible, beats gloomy, tense, skeletal, "Sharp as a Knife" is helped by a looped piano, you get to the first little fall of disc performance, "Outsiders", where OC delivers poorly despite Buckwild has created a great underground, jazzy, dark beat.
DJ Eclipse raises the album with a dry, polished, tight, jazzy underground beat in the first of an endless freestyle series and, after six songs, we reaches "A Clear Day" (ft. Poops), unreleased: beautiful dark, jazzy boom bap, OC delivers well making the track darker and paying tribute to Nas. From here on, it's a rise and fall, a swing of sensations, the rhythms remain consistently jazzy and dark, sometimes they're alternative and always with an underground flavor, but OC varies and brings the album a little where it wants, always remembering that on productions like these it's hard to go wrong even if you want to.
And it's correct to say that there are not too many strong points in the previous "O-Zone" EPs from which the entire first record is extracted, I only mention "No Main Topic" ft. Prince Po, "Master Ya High" & "Flipside", as well as some effective bridges in the middle of the tracks. Two of them close the first disc among the finest cuts here: “Metal Thangz” — a bleak, dystopian production, shaken by the cheerful jazzy over which OC is polished, delivering in a diligent way in a track strengthened by the heavy presence of Monch and FT, the latter starts and goes away only by flow, awesome — and "Back to the Grill / Daze in a Weak Remix", where there's T-Ray behind the keyboards, he provides a dark, jazzy/funky boom bap in the posse track with Red Hot Lover Tone, Chubb Rock, MC Serch, and Nasir Jones.
The second disc opens with the new "Showtime", another dark beat where the emcee from New York seems inspired, but decides not to stop his see-saw "here good rapping here not good". Is the case of the next one, a remix of "A Clear Day" that presents a beat similar to the previous ones, before "Stop the Breaks", which is one of the real pearls of this compilation. Omar Credle takes us back to 1994, snatching this legendary track from Ron G's record to revive it twenty-five years later: gloomy, sharp boom bap, with the Christmas bells cut off by the beat itself, surprisingly opens Kurtis Blow but it's even more surprising to hear the shout “Wu-Tang” in an OC album, immediately after that, Raekwon starts with a good initial delivery, a spatial flow ready to stab the beat; Killa Sin definitively kills him with a pretty strong verse. KRS arrives with an extra-verse, revives the song to kill it again, closes Biggie with his verse sent in legend and also recycled by Big L for "Deadly Combination Remix". There would be OC at the end, true, but [his verse] isn't comparable to [that of] the two that preceded it and it's hard to stay with the other two who started the track for him.
The next five tracks are all high-profile, it doesn't happen that often: "What I Need" has a pretty nice dark jazzy beat created by Lost and a good soulful sample, OC delivers excellently, in a heartbreaking way. "Trouble" is a nice joint with OC and AG, excellent dark boom bap with jazzy bridge on chorus not rapped, while "The Biggest Loser" is an impressive jazzy boom bap production, soulful, the main emcee must simply deliver carefully to create a classic, not even need to go on the hook, the sample beautifully puts by the producer will think about it and add some value to. Excellent work in production, classic. "What Am I Supposed to Do? (Alternate Extended Mix)" is composted from a flawless production, jazzy boom bap with looped piano, OC's clearly inspired, delivered well here, excellent cut. From track nine of the second disc, starts an endless series of freestyle, where the beats hold up quite well, we've several dark jazzy good-level versions, variations with skeletal productions, essential, alternative or more rhythmic than usual, but Credle has never gone too strong in freestyle and here if compared with giants like Big L, Kool Keith and Organized Konfusion, he struggles, struggles clearly, seems even inferior to Large Professor which delivers better, then Keith and the duo close strong.
Even at the tenth, "Tony Touch Power Cypha 2 Freestyle '97", a decent DITC posse track (not one of their best) with Fat Joe, Lord Finesse, AG, Diamond D and the ever-present Big L, OC's obscured by presence of his friend Coleman — like everyone else, but this is another story — but here he doesn't noticed too much and risks disfiguring even beside Fat Joe. Yet the beat's his home, we find ourselves on a skeletal boom bap, essential and gloomy, and OC doesn't emerge clearly as it should. On these freestyles, he delivers smooth, dark, too average. It should be noted that it seems that the second CD's overall better than the first and a ultimately's actually just like that, but not as much as you'd expect this because the second disc has this mixed part, this part of freestyle which is a cumbersome part, it's hard to get going, it's not a brilliant part, it slows down the quality of the whole product because it's governed by OC's performance at the mic. Twelve freestyles all in a row are too many? Maybe yes. Also because we're not talking about the usual tracks of three, four, ok, even five minutes in which the average listener is used, here we're immersed in a seventy consecutive minutes of freestyle. 70 minutes, one hour and ten freestyle in a row. It's not easy to hold them, it's not easy to listen to them if you don't have a Big L or Pharoahe Monch that every so often refresh your listening by dropping verses more or less cheerfully and often dope, which unfortunately OC's rarely revealed to be.
70 minutes. And put away these freestyles. The fool who wants to listen 'em — do yourself a favor and skip #18 and #19, freestyle with MC Serch on dark and tense boom baps, in which you don't miss anything, man — in that moment he'll find himself in front of some of the best tracks in the career of OC, remixed for the occasion in a sublime way. Two versions of "Time’s Up", two versions of "Born 2 Live" and two versions of "Word… Life". As already discussed in the EPs, DJ Eclipse at least equals Buckwild in his version of "Born 2 Live" (#23), while DJ Celory outperforms him in "Word… Life". The other remixes must also be taken into consideration, the first is by Moodswing9 for "Time’s Up": wonderful dark, tense boom bap, OC delivers silky good on this excellent underground production. This too is better than the original, and it wasn't easy. M-Phazes creates his own remix for "Time’s Up", furrowing a deep, jazzy, dark, tense beat, but not similar to the previous one, the producer finds an excellent distinct, simple, brilliant beat; OC doesn't flow like on the previous piece, but the scratch on the hook corroborates the song and takes it to the level of must-listen. At track #24, Vinyl Reanimators brings a more essential, skeletal remix, a dry and gloomy boom on which the delivery of OC's broken in two by this profoundly sharp beat, a razor that leaves no escape to his rhythmic and "winding" flow. Before the absolute masterpiece by DJ Celory, the track "Word... Life (Chilloutist Remix)" also puts its signature on this whimsical and endless collection with a jazzy remix of a classic: the beatmaker creates a light, dark rhythm, realizing a flawless musical carpet, in which the rapper runs perfectly, great work, it's a definitive must-listen for every jazz rap fan.
In reality, there are so many highlights, so many bangers, so many excellent cuts that a first listen could also deceive and give the impression of being a classic compilation album. However, it's not so [classic]. It cannot be considered as a studio album because it brings together four previous EPs of "O-Zone Original" series and adds something. It's a trip of over fifty tracks (51) in jazzy/dark underground hip hop, a trip coherent with some deep acutes and a gripping ending composed mostly by [remixes of] classics.
This effort's recommended to fans of jazz rap, D.I.T.C., and even OC, there's something good here; those who have not listened to the EPs that Credle has dropped in 2010-2011 finds it all here, and those who have enjoyed his first two albums will also appreciate this effort. Of course, the crazy one who wants to listen to this album will have to spend over 210 minutes, it's three and a half hours.
The highlights are, as already written above, many: excluding the tracks already heard in the EPs and the remixes, I can go to mention "A Clear Day", "Metal Thangz", "Stop the Breaks", "The Biggest Loser", and "What Am I Supposed to Do?".
Rating: 7/10 (CD 1: 6.7/10; CD 2: 7.5/10).
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