After Big L's death and several issues with the production of their second studio album, DITC members embarked on solo ventures, and the group fell apart. Five years after their first and only LP worthy of the name, Show attempts to reunite what remains of one of the most talented collectives in 1990s hip-hop, and the result is a curious album, to say the least.
The project is produced by Showbiz, Lord Finesse is the author of four rhythms. The DITC affiliate and Ghetto Dwellas half Party Arty is the main rapper of what should be a Diggin' in the Crates Crew album. Fat Joe appears four times, followed by Big L (2), AG (2) and OC (1), among the emcees of the crew. The external guests are A-Bless, D-Flow (of Ghetto Dwellas, now known as G.D.), Milano Constantine, Big Pun, MOP and Ruck.
Finesse designs a beautiful tense jazzy rhythm for "A Whole Lotta", where A Bless delivers careful, precise, dark and rough delivery, it's a short tune that deserved more space. But from track two, the disc slips away: I wouldn't let all the guilt fall on the Ghetto Dwellas dude, both the guests end up to sound unfit for different reasons: the commercially deflected Fat Joe sounds generally bad and here he doesn't convince, dragging himself behind Party Arty, clearly unfit on rhythms that aren't exactly appropriate to his delivery style and his raspy flow.
The problem lies in Showbiz's simplistic and bouncy jazzy boom bap. It doesn't go better with the next, despite the purebred horses: for OC and AG, Showbiz brings out a bouncy and simplistic production worse than the previous one, without sense, AG pulls straightforward easy-going in his delivery, but above this garbage he doesn't even stand out and his hallway is compatible. At points, Credle is better, but at this moment it's legitimate to ask if this weak beat is really the work of Showbiz. Big Punisher arrives at the moment of need and, helped by L Corleone, pulls this CD out of the morass. MOP doesn't move the record away from stagnation, on a tight and hardcore jazzy remixed rhythm.
From here on, it's a Party Arty domain, not necessarily as bad as you might think: it's certainly not at the level of Big L ("Back in My Hood"; decent tight jazzy rhythm, the Ghetto Dwellas emcee here is fit on a gloomy and jazzy soundscape) and theoretically alone should struggle, instead on the velvet rhythm of Finesse he finds himself quite at ease ("All Seasons"), while Showbiz gives him a soulful jazzy production that is left to breathe calmly, the rapper succeeds in unusual undertaking to deliver a sexual cut on a rhythm not congenial to him (hook left to the soulful sample looped in the background).
Mediocre solos arrive from A Bless (uncertain and partly unfit delivery on a tight jazzy alternative rhythm) and Fat Joe (mediocre on the dystopian background), better, but not so much better, Party Arty, on his third solo on this DITC record: here too the rhythm isn't "his home", light soulful jazzy with soulful samples looped in the background; he goes calm almost as if he were on eggshells. Another solo by a DITC affiliate, the good Milano, on a dark jazzy genius rhythm by Finesse. There is a Terror Squad moment, with Pun & Joe delivering in "Best Behavior", what should have been one of the best cuts on the record: while Big Punisher's verse is dope on Show's slow and bouncy hardcore rhythm, Joe watered down the song.
Party Arty musically returns home in his fourth solo: Show gives him a dark and tense rhythm, he returns with a gloomy and severe delivery, rough and shiny, completely fit with the beat and thanks the beatmaker by leaving with a decent performance. Less well the following, Party Arty & Fat Joe on dark / gloomy jazzy production, better the Ghetto Dwellas rapper than the Terror Squad one, here unlistenable. Second solo from Milano: simplistic and bouncing boom bap, the rapper doesn't want to make obvious mistakes and delivers carefully. Posse track with the maximum weight Sean P, inside AG and the Ghetto Dwellas (all clearly lower) on a tense, gloomy rhythm; decently the G.D., Andre the Giant delivers with disdain and sufficiency, better Sean Price in a cut whose title deceives remembering the late Pun. It doesn't even have the vibrations of that classic. Closes this mediocre project, "Ridin '& Rollin'": Finesse behind the keyboards, D-Flow and A-Bless on the mic, the dark / tense jazzy rhythm is pretty fine.
Released by Lumberjack Records and Wild Life Entertainment, distributed by Studio Distribution, the disk is received with suspicion by specialist reviewers and ignored by everyone else. It should be noted that this is meant to be, and is sometimes considered to be, Showbiz's solo album debut. Listening isn't worth it, I struggle to identify strong points ("Where You At"), and there aren't even so many weak points, but the few are deep and lacerating of this project. The rest are tracks that wallow on the border between honesty and average.
Rating: 6/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment