Studio album number six in seven years for Big Daddy Kane, who for the first time in his career leaves Cold Chillin' and signs with MCA. Production is mainly done by Big Daddy Kane and Easy Mo Bee, as well as LG, DJ Premier, Da Rock, Crush, Kool T, and several instrumentalists. Big Scoob is the main guest of the edition, also present in the famous posse "Show & Prove" together with Sauce Money, Shyheim, Jay-Z and Ol' Dirty Bastard.
The production is simple, effortless and never too excessive, consisting of faithfully East Coast boom bap rhythms, hard and slow drums, accessible samples and live instruments, to support the MC. The album focuses on battle rap, the hunting ground where Big Daddy Kane goes strong, revolving around gangsta and braggadocio topics, with some casual conscious extracts, ragga fillers and never-needed fillers for women.
He's not at his best in career, however, his delivery style is technically good and he's still competent, regular most of the time, albeit sometimes lacking the right energy and he's rarely inspired. Right from the title track, it's pretty easy to say that "Show & Prove" has absolutely nothing to do with the rest: unique rhythm created by DJ Premier, jazzy boom bap with lively and cheerful drums and festive samples, ignorable opening verse of Big Scoob, then the other MCs arrive. Sauce Money leads the way with a slow flow, follows Shyheim in one of his best moments, crisp, clean, smooth, fantastic; Big Daddy Kane leaves his signature on the cut with clean rapping, then Jay-Z (sometimes credited as JZ and thrown by Kane) comes fresh and annihilates the beat with a spectacular, smooth, effortless, dope flow, before the close of Ol' Dirty Bastard with his typical crazy, extravagant and sickly irregular style.
After a luxurious life between glitz and girls, in the mid-nineties, Big Daddy Kane leaves home and finds himself in the Projects, in the middle of the street, alone, in the cold, against the wind, scrutinizing graffiti. New York. Prepares for another return. That does not come. The following year, he comes home, warm, in peace, he can get up when he wants, the flannel, the tea in the living room, the piano behind him. His new LP isn't necessarily worse than the previous one nor better, it's honest and discreet, perhaps even a little neglected.
The album gets a favorable critical reception, while the commercial results are disappointing, as it's not promoted properly, despite being distributed by a major label: "Show & Prove" is extracted as a single, but the MCA doesn't work and the record doesn't rank, instead the album stops outside the top 150 in the pop chart and outside the top 25 among rap records. After the release, and after his discarded rhythms have been turned into classics by other MCs, the boy decides to take a long hiatus, returning with his latest disk four years later.
Rating: 6.5/10.
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