Debut extended play for Natural Elements, a New York hip-hop group formed in 1993 and composed of Henri Charlemagne, Agu "Mr. Voodoo" Obiakor, Len "L Swift" Lesmond, Kaseem "Ka" Ryan, G Blass, Howie Smalls and The InTimidator.
The year following the release of the EP, Ka, G Blass, Howie Smalls and The Intimidator leave the group, in their place A-Butta enters. Charlemagne entirely produces this effort, which is distributed by his label Fortress Entertainment. The production boasts the typical East Coast sound of the period, boom bap jazzy, with a hard pounding and slow drum and good samples: overall, it's an honest musical carpet for the bars of this half-dozen performers.
These guys make tracks exclusively braggadocio, G Blass ("Cock It Back"), L Swift ("Live the Life"), Ka ("I Mean This"), Intimidator ("69 Caddy") and Charlemagne ("Set It Off") they all have a solo spot, but in these songs they struggle to move forward and it's possible to lose attention during the listening, because three verses apiece are too many for them, they can't hold them. In "69 Caddy", there's also a good rnb hook from Ebony, uncredited, but the track doesn't feature anything impressive. The rappers perform better with fewer bars each in the "Step to the Side" posse, Ka is better than the others, behind only Mr. Voodoo, the only member of the group who's not reserved for a solo track, strangely, because here he has the best flow and the dark sample enhances his raw delivery style.
Decent EP of around twenty minutes, recommended for fans of the East Coast underground: in the mid-nineties, the group found considerable success in NY radio shows, making a name for itself on the underground circuit and gaining a good following of fans. In the late nineties, the group signed with Tommy Boy, released a couple of singles with the label and recorded a studio album to be released in 1999, however, the label continues to put off until it's permanently shelved.
Rating: 7/10.
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