producers: joe buhda

Back when Rawkus was still receiving unrestricted props, one of their now classic 12" came out: L-Fudge's "Liquid / Show Me Your Gratitude / What If?". There have been many others that released less a record and then went on to do albums and enjoy break through success. Not L-Fudge though. But as we know, in hip hop things don't happen in fair ways or how they should happen. There are different, if any, rules. Now, the 'L' has been expanded to 'El', and Fudge traveled to the UK, on the way putting the support of Germany in his rucksack, to hook up with producer Joe Buhda, Sureshot Entertainment and GrooveAttack, to give us his first album.

Starting with a short intro and an unneeded South park sample, the first proper track goes by the name of "New York Olympic Games". As each track, this is produced by Joe. Now Fudge flips the concept on here rather lovely, finding sporting events in NYC's daily unfoldings. The next cut "Bad Habits" features a more appealing, while adventurously cast beat, the strings building pillow castles, and El again spits surprising street rhymes, even slowing and toning himself down. If this would be a Queensbridge graduate track, we wouldn't even consider it surprising though. Maybe on "Worldwide", things get more like expected, when El teams up with Mr. 45 and DJ Crossphada, who's doing the cuts. With opening braggadocios content, and then mixing it with a look back reflecting, the sad goodbye like beat, still seems to hopefully open another door. This works well, resulting in a dope track.

We are then hit with something talking about the current state, as "De De" finds El ripping through the annoyings that are happening, confirming his position, making sure that we don't miss him reminding us of his niceness. The next guest follows on "Realise", with J-Live dropping by, fortunately not having to rhyme over the opening sounds, as after the intro, the track changes into something very mid 90s, that is totally cool, well, maybe minus the female on the hook. Again taking the services of Crossphada, we are treated to a tale of meeting women on "A Night At Grant's Tomb", a reminiscing thoughts explanation, matched with the right beat.

Making it a sequel, the next cut is called "A Night At Hunts Point", this working as a second installment, but with a weaker beat. But there's no way denying the skills of DJ Noize, that he uses rather restrained though. What then gets us to one of the best beats, it being used on "Beware". Despite this sounding very mid 90s again, even a little dated, it is dope enough to, if really that old, still having remained fresh. All you guys that have heard "A Conversation With Hip Hop" by Fudge (off the "Hip Hop Independence Day Volume 1, Record 1" compilation) will find the lyrics again on "Rockin' It" featuring DJ Ivory. As the original name lets you suspect, this is a monologue about hip hop. Men and female frictions are explored with Temptress on "Talk To The Hand", El making it possible for everyone to relate, as this could have been you, or you, just yesterday.

And then it's about time to go for a collabo with Mr. Complex, him meeting Fudge on "New York Minute", that operates as a track peeping out the window, reporting what the eye catches and sees. The beat on "Star Wars (JB Mix)" isn't tempting us to check out this ill and not lacking a bundle of humor tale, where El involves characters, playing director, only needing to yell 'action' once. Then there's "Face Off" with Crossphada, where El does some straight spitting, unfortunately not over the best of beats. And then finally, there's "One Fudge", featuring DJ Ivory. As this is ending the album, it is used to once more make sure hat we are aware of who we are listening to and what makes El tick.

Concluding, this album is a surprise for several reasons, as some topics catches us not expecting them and the strong nostalgic vibe is at times confusing, as we were ready to embrace something more forward looking. And while the ingredients sound somewhat basic at times, there's a second level behind them, that allows this to sneak on us and make its quality visible. Whilst we aren't witnessing a revolution or revelation, there's a whole lot of straightness about this album to enjoy.