Unique studio album published by Ruben
"Main One" Rivera, rapper from The Bronx, New York. The production is
created by Madman Scheme, Domingo, Ski Beatz, Buckwild, Donald D.,
Silver D and Tic. The MC boasts guests like Fat Joe, Joe Fatal, Kurious,
Prince Power, Big Jam, Red Hot Lover Tone and A.J.
Main One debuts in
1993, participating in "International Dope Dealers" by Kaos, and in 1994
he published his first single, "Learn 2 Be a Man 4 Self", produced by
Buckwild for the Select Records. The young rapper manages to get an
agreement with the label to record an album and in 1995, publishes a
project of 19 tracks and 61 minutes. Main One is a good rapper, has an
honest, inspired, hardcore style, but at the same time, slow and
regular, monotonous in the long period.
Music should be better than it is: there are Domingo, Ski Beatz and Buckwild among producers, and the sonic pictures chosen by these boys doesn't reflect their real values. The quality is dull and the songs sound similarly to each other: often there's a skinny and dry drum that raises a little dust, not enough to explore the atmosphere, wrap the listener or create a gritty soundscape, It seems that most of the dust is retained from moisture that impregnates the manholes in the corners of the streets. The samples are reduced and cheap, there's nothing that's highlighted in this hour, while guests try to add as little as possible to the tape: removed that Tone piece, "El Gran Combo" should be one of the high moments of the disc. There are Kurious, Fat Joe, Joe Fatal, Prince Power, some of them rap with passion, nevertheless, the track isn't the banger that promises to be.
The two singles of the album are "Learn 2 Be a Man 4 Self" and "Check da Skillz", which is produced by Ski Beatz. Having said that, it's the title track that sounds like the best song of the edition: excellent lively piano loop, strings, scratches on the chorus, dusty, dirty and midtempo drum machine, great energetic and fluid delivery of the rapper. In conclusion, it's a good album for East Coast and boom bap fans, far from being an essential listening. It's a shame, because it doesn't seem to show all the potential of which Main One is in possession, and you can find some gem in the series of singles that he published in the following years: take "Droppin Gramma", from 1997, with the rapper OC of DITC, that line "The Main Uno molest your style like Menudo" is still one of the rawest bars that you have never heard.
Music should be better than it is: there are Domingo, Ski Beatz and Buckwild among producers, and the sonic pictures chosen by these boys doesn't reflect their real values. The quality is dull and the songs sound similarly to each other: often there's a skinny and dry drum that raises a little dust, not enough to explore the atmosphere, wrap the listener or create a gritty soundscape, It seems that most of the dust is retained from moisture that impregnates the manholes in the corners of the streets. The samples are reduced and cheap, there's nothing that's highlighted in this hour, while guests try to add as little as possible to the tape: removed that Tone piece, "El Gran Combo" should be one of the high moments of the disc. There are Kurious, Fat Joe, Joe Fatal, Prince Power, some of them rap with passion, nevertheless, the track isn't the banger that promises to be.
The two singles of the album are "Learn 2 Be a Man 4 Self" and "Check da Skillz", which is produced by Ski Beatz. Having said that, it's the title track that sounds like the best song of the edition: excellent lively piano loop, strings, scratches on the chorus, dusty, dirty and midtempo drum machine, great energetic and fluid delivery of the rapper. In conclusion, it's a good album for East Coast and boom bap fans, far from being an essential listening. It's a shame, because it doesn't seem to show all the potential of which Main One is in possession, and you can find some gem in the series of singles that he published in the following years: take "Droppin Gramma", from 1997, with the rapper OC of DITC, that line "The Main Uno molest your style like Menudo" is still one of the rawest bars that you have never heard.
Rating: 7/10.
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