producer: fat jack, rob the viking, od, kool dj eq.

Let's get the one thing outta the way what we don't like about this record, so that after that done, we can start praising it. Aight: there's simply too many guests on here. They might be hand picked, they might be family, they might often enough just be DJs, singers, musicians, well whatever, it's still distracting. And we don't even wanna hate, as there's not one wack cat on here, but damn. Check this out: there's 18 cuts on here. There's five tracks on here, that doesn't feature someone. One of 'em is the Intro, one of 'em is the "Ab Live @ The Goodlife Cafe '93" interlude. Well, the intro is dope with an even doper Gil sample, the interlude is giving us one ill look back, so again, we don't want to hate. But let's have a look into the guestlist.

There's three posse cuts on here. One is the very appreciated "Heavyweights Round 4" that features (and buckle up fellas) J Smoov, Aceyalone, Neb Luv, P.E.A.C.E., Ellay Khule, Medusa, Suga BJ, Mikah 9, Zulu Butterfly Priest, Nga Fish, Self Jupiter, K-Bar, Transetta, Riddlore?, Busdriver, Ko Ko, Volume 10, DJ Rhettmatic and Dr.EZ. Aight? The second one is "Frisbee" a cut on what to do with wack records, that features Slug, Eyedea, Busdriver, LMNO, 2Mex, Xololanxinxo and Rhettmatic. The third one is "M-A-double S" that features DK Toon, Awol One, Smooth 7 and DJ Roach. I hope you memorized all of this. However, we can keep it coming, as The Grouch and Eligh drop by on "Dawning Of The A.G.E.", Mokay Only rhymes on "She's Always Right", and miscellaneous cats are helping out on plenty more tracks. Crazy, right?

However, none of that really makes a cut wack. That'd be a ridiculous claim. Naw man. Further A.T.U. is also featuring a host of dope beat makers behind the boards. The obvious Fat Jack is responsible for most of the cuts, while OD, Rob The Viking, Daddy Kev and Kool DJ EQ are doing a little something something as well. What then means that we are getting the butter smooth offerings like "Yep!" done by Fat Jack, the somewhat becoming signature Battle Axe sound of Rob The Viking, like on "Stop Biting", as well as the turntable trickery of Kool DJ EQ on "Abscratchrude Interlude".

But we haven't yet said much about the music at all. Well, what is there to say, apart from giving you a suspect look, if you are more or less not familiar with Ab Rude's and ATU's music. Cause just like Madchild says on "Stop Biting": "you [meaning Ab] and Freestyle Fellowship, Project Blowed; that's the true originators of styles. And it's a compliment when these kids get inspired by what you did and continue to do, but it's an insult, when they get all gassed up and forget where they got their styles from in the first place". But for all those that haven't done their homework, Abstract is a legend, and whenever he picks up the mic, you know you'll get intelligent, conscious and poetic rhymes. And speaking of poetic, he tries something new on here, as he does something 'slam poetry' inspired with "A Coat Of Paint (Finale)", a beautiful somewhat talked, somewhat sung song, that's magical and more, while sad, while suffering, while honest, while being incredible, and while ending the album.

And hence we have listened to the album again, and suddenly the guest artists are not that important anymore. We just can't be angry at that. The album is too good for that. Yes, we still haven't said too much about the songs, but you need to discover this album yourself, you need the flavors, the spice, you need to buy all the ingredients to make your own curry, instead of just cracking open a tin. "P.A.I.N.T." is the color that real artists seem to be able to mix with ease, while amateurs, greenhorns and wannabes struggle to repeat 'em, and reviewers are struggling to describe it in any worthy fashion.