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read reviewEdan
Echo Party
Five Day Weekend | 2009

What happens when Edan (The Deejay) gets the chance to mess around with Traffic Entertainment’s back catalogue, consisting of long-gone but treasured labels such as Magic Records, Chocolate Star and P&P? Cheer madness occurs. Super-ecstatically mixed together, breaks collide with bleeps, and kazoos clinch with cuts while a flinch of familiar party ... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 12-12-2009 | rated: mighty phat

 
 
 

read reviewDJ Spinna
Sonic Smash
High Water | 2009

No Eminem (featured on Spinna’s ‘Heavy Beats vol. 1’) this time, but make sure to buckle up, get ready for DJ Spinna’s newest ‘Sonic Smash’. It’s a showcase of hungry young lions, rapping like every rhyme will feed them an antelope, and household stagers, whose verse delivery is more advanced than an experienced midwife’s, combined with a productio... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 10-07-2009 | rated: topnotch

 
 
 

read reviewD.Black
Ali'Yah
MYX Music | 2009

A dedication to moving on in the best way, to grow up, to deal with responisbilities, D.Black’s newest album seemed like a complicated task for a lyricist of that young age (22), but amazingly the Seattle rapper really did an admirable job. Without one time getting too preachery, 'Ali'Yah' (Hebrew for 'to ascend') is a testimony of life expercience... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 10-07-2009 | rated: mightyphat

 
 
 

read reviewBreakestra
Dusk Till Dawn
Strut | 2009

Break fiends, 70’s funk afficionados beware, because Breakestra is back after a five years’ break. With the first listening we had some problems with our time orientation, as the music totally pulls you back thirty years earlier. At the same time, we were very surprised with the group's ability to even be able to reproduce some of that era’s best f... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: engelbert humperfunk | 10-06-2009 | rated: phat

 
 
 

read reviewAarophat & Illastrate
The Black Noise LP
IllSevenz/Working Class | 2009

How long does it take for an emcee and a producer to click and build chemistry? Aarophat, an MC reppin Youngstown, Ohio, and Illastrate, a producer holding it down for Atlanta, only needed 14 hours. In 14 tracks, the MC’s raw, waterproof flow and Illastrate’s dirty drums with dusty soul sampling match seamlessly.

'Th... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 09-15-2009 | rated: mighty phat

 
 
 

read reviewUs3
Run.stop.think
- | 2009

Over fifteen years ago, Us3’s 'Cantaloop' became a smash hit single and made 'Hand On The Torch', the album it appeared on, Blue Note’s first platinum selling album in the US. The single still remains essential regarding the impact the album had on hip-hop. A hip-hop record went platinum on an essential jazz label and for the first time, there was ... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 06-25-2009 | rated: mighty phat

 
 
 

read reviewMoka Only
Lowdown Suite 2 - The Box
Feelin Music | 2009

When it comes down to Moka Only and releases one could easily loose track (better say 'album'). When one is announced another album comes along already. Later this year, the self-proclaimed 'hungry hippo' will release a full length album together with Pharcyde's Bootie Brown and (hopefully) the Mister Mister project with Mr. Brady. Now it's time fo... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 06-06-2009 | rated: mighty phat

 
 
 

read reviewIvan Ives
Newspeak
No Treshold | 2009

In George Orwell’s novel '1984', 'Newspeak' is a greatly reduced and simplified language with little vocabulary and almost no grammar. When you know that Ivan Ives, Russian-born (in 1984) but raised in Brooklyn and currently residing in L.A., was already a great fan of Shakespeare in his teenager years, then the contrast between the album title and... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 06-05-2009 | rated: phat

 
 
 

read reviewThe Grouch & Eligh (G&E)
Say G&E!
Legendary Music | 2009

Say whut? Say G&E! Living Legends The Grouch and Eligh are back with a new episode of the G&E series. 'G’s for the good, E for Elevation, we gon’ touch the world, this is celebration', it goes in the title track’s chorus. 'Follow the way back to the Bay, let’s smart', man-of-the-moment The... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 03-31-2009 | rated: topnotch

 
 
 

read reviewVerbal Kent & Kaze One
Brave New Rap
Gravel Hiphop | 2009

After meeting in 2001 at an MC battle, Chicagoans Verbal Kent, master of ceremonies, and Kaz One, beat creator, have been on a mission. 'The rapper should make me wanna make a beat so hard it could knock a man down', Kaz 1 said to Verbal Kent and that was that. The rapper interpreted it as an invitation, the producer jumped on the train. Since Verb... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 03-30-2009 | rated: mighty phat

 
 
 

read reviewFinale
A Pipe Dream And A Promise
Interdependent Media | 2009

A pamphlet of blue-collar heroism, a story that has never been more relevant than in today’s economic slump. Get out of the dirt and follow your dreams, an adagio where ninety percent of the Motor Citizens can relate to, that’s what 'A Pipe Dream and A Promise' really is. Besides that, it’s the introduction of Finale to a wider audience, after bein... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 03-06-2009 | rated: mighty phat

 
 
 

read reviewBraille & S1
Cloud Nineteen
Hiphop IS Music | 2009

After having each track produced by a different producer on his previous release 'The IV Edition', HiphopIsMusic founder Braille Brizzy took only one producer under his wings for his latest album 'Cloud Nineteen'. And that’s what Symbolic One, sound provider of the Strange Fruit Project, does: giving the Lightheaded front man wings, as the collabor... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 03-06-2009 | rated: phat

 
 
 

read reviewMadlib
Beat Konducta vol 5 + 6
Stones Throw | 2009

Three years after Dilla’s passing, we’ve been able to witness a lot of dedications and homages. Artists that stood close to him, artists that felt connected with him, they all wanted to pay tribute. But actually it was really waiting for Madlib’s eulogy, as the two most prolific underground producers grew towards each other a lot in Dilla’s last da... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 02-17-2009 | rated: mighty phat

 
 
 

read reviewAquil
Blues People
- | 2008

Although issued as a mixtape, the CD listens more like an album. With used beats as well as self-made productions, Aquil showcases in the first place his lyrical skills. Reminiscent of Nas, he flows with ease whether it's a Madlib, heavily jazz- (Fela Kuti) and funk- (The Sylvers) infested, old school ('86 Demotape') or boombap (the Nas homage 'Wor... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 02-04-2009 | rated: phat

 
 
 

read reviewMetermaids
Nightlife
27Sound Ent | 2008

In an attempt to paint the town red, Metermaids duo Swell and Sentence cross the boundaries of hip-hop and add some electronica and guitar riffs to the traditional beats and rhymes. Not that hip-hop is strictly limited to beat machines and rhymes these days, but the amount of live instrumentated rap records is still rather scarce.

And that
... [ READ MORE ]

posted by: cpf | 02-04-2009 | rated: nice

 
 
 
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RATES
Classic:
10
 
Topnotch:
9-9.5
 
Mighty Phat:
8.5-9
 
Phat:
7.5-8.5
 
Nice:
6.5-7.5
 
Aight:
5.5-6.5
 
So & So:
4-5.5
 
Rubbish:
0-4
 

Please note: we changed our rating system on March 21th 2006. We made it more transparant and fine-tuned it. All rates given to albums before today are still following our older system!
 

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