producers: molecules, gene brown, joe blunt, fat daddy, dres.

Long before ‘urban smarts’ was the Flava Of The Week, Black Sheep released the seminal hip hop classic "Flavor Of The Month", not only to coin this phrase, but to great success and appreciation. Their creatively high ranking "A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing", that also contained other past times favorites, like "The Choice Is Yours" and "Strobelite Honey", came out in 1991 and was followed by the "Non Fiction" album some years later. That one was actually better than the minimal reception it got. However, with a tragically overlooked follow up album, being too conscious in times of Death Row’s success, and with the creative differences the team up of Dres and Mr. Lawnge faced, it was time to split. Fast forward to 1998. That year the "Pardon Me" 12" brought back Dres to our memory. And fast forward to nintey-now and his first solo album drops.

The early nineties feel is defenitely still around, like on "As I Look Back", "Endz" or "Straight Paper". "Back 2 Back" does sound like something from back then, and unlike the other tracks in that vibe, it sounds somewhat dated. Trying not to look bad around the new cats, "Pardon Me" kicks in hard, while "You’re So Vain" has Stevie Wonder soundalike Horace Brown chime over this emotional and heartfelt track. Remaining in the vibe is "Night Time" (feat. Vick Miles). Things are interestingly crafted, on the dope, while very short "Grand Groove".

With much of the production being handled by a host of different producers (Molecules of The Legion, Gene Brown, Fat Daddy, Joe Blunt and Dres himself), only The Legion is really known. But they disappeared just about after they released their "Theme+Echo=Krill" album, which was actually really good. Their "Street Thing b/w Caught Up" 12", released last year, didn’t amaze too much, and Molecules does reclaim some of the dopeness with "Start Of Something Big" and the previously mentioned "Pardon Me".

With being hungry again, Dres steps up to the microphone ready for giving others a lyrical whup ass. Touching many different topics, he does fall prey to adapt topics that are now beaten to death by the young cats that are out now. Still flowing like he did a few years ago, this possibly sounds strange to the young people that grew up on thug poetry. But for the old folks, this might just be the inspiration to go and dig deep in the crates for those two old albums.