Collaborative studio album between The Bronx-born hip-hop producer Anthony "Buckwild" Best and the Tampa, Florida-born, New York City-based rapper Victor "Celph Titled" Mercer.
Buckwild is member of the DITC crew, Celph Titled is member of the groups Demigodz and Army of the Pharaohs. The album is entirely produced by Buckwild with additional production by Celph Titled and Apathy. The guests are Apathy, Vinnie Paz, Ryu, Esoteric, Treach, FT, R.A. the Rugged Man, Chino XL, Majik Most, Sadat X, Grand Puba, AG, OC, Diamond D, Dutchmassive, Lord Digga, H2, Sharife Reefa, Anthony "Flave" Black and Blacastan.
Buckwild takes us back to the nineties, dusting off some of his best beats for Celph Titled and calling as guests several rappers who saw their peak in that era. The Diggin in the Crates veteran producer unearths the time capsule of his unreleased beats created in the mid-nineties (circa '94-'95) and buried over a decade earlier, and offers this fortunate craftsman a full set of some of the best hip-hop beats available in 2010. It's remarkable that a beatmaker can dig into his archives and pull off an entire set of this quality; only a handful of others could have done so and created one of the best rap albums of the year.
After building his artistic career on battle rap and freestyle, Celph Titled builds each of his tracks on punchlines, placing one battle after another and trying in this way to build his own personal classic album. During these seventy minutes, the rapper who has collaborated on the albums of the groups Styles of Beyond and Fort Minor remains alone for a dozen minutes, while for the rest of the time he's joined by other veterans of the nineties, more or less in shape. RA the Rugged Man lights up "Mad Ammo", DITC and Brand Nubian make "There Will Be Blood" one of the strongest points of this CD, Chino XL and Apathy go well in "Styles Ain't Raw", while Treach of Naughty by Nature ("Out to Lunch") and Vinnie Paz of Jedi Mind Tricks ("Eraserheads", with a production that boasts a lynchian mood) are both obscured by the superior musical carpet invented by Buckwild and by the main rapper.
Buckwild's production is filled with thick, solid, and deep bass, slick pianos, hard, robust, dirty, filthy drums, joyful horns, dusty strings, fresh scratches (by Mista Sinista) delicious samples reminiscent of classics, and sonic magic, sometimes accompanied by beatmaker DITC's trademark Christmas bells. The switchbeat of "Swashbuckling" is one of the best moments of the hip-hop season, and the same track has even a skit from the cult movie "King of New York" (1990). This glorious soundscape is often squandered by Celph Titled, who, while not overdoing it, fails to fully exploit the potential of each individual rhythm. This is why what emerges is a solid and cohesive album overall, but not a classic, especially since there are no classic cuts. It's a shame and a disappointment to say and write this, despite the album as a whole being enjoyable and refreshing, amazing in some traits, but the elementary, ignorant, poor lyricism of Demigodz's emcee, his overall not very evocative lyrics and a rapping performance that becomes increasingly monotonous and boring as the minutes pass, keep the album blocked and clip its wings a bit, culminating in the low point "Wack Juice", tainted by homophobia.
Released by No Sleep Recordings and Demigodz Records, the album is enthusiastically received by fans and specialized critics, who welcome the simple and effective formula developed by Buckwild and Celph Titled in order to bring back that nineties hip-hop sound. The album also managed to enter the charts, peaking 57 among rap albums. Recommended for DITC and Army of the Pharaohs fans, is one of the hip-hop underdog album of the year.
Rating: 7.5/10.
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