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| tracklisting |
| 1. Intro |
| 2. The Manifest |
| 3. Ode To J. Sands |
| 4. Stealing And Rhyming |
| 5. N.A.B.'s feat. D.L., Scales, Ree |
| 6. Leave It Alone feat. DJ Donsville |
| 7. Brains feat. J. Rawls |
| 8. In Jail feat. Dante |
| 9. Whatever feat. Rashad & P.A. from The 3rd |
| 10. Too Much Pussy |
| 11. Dirty Dick |
| 12. Reminiscing Apache |
| 13. Times We Chill feat. L.G. & Caleesh |
| 14. Love 'Sincerely Yours' feat. Lord Grand |
| 15. Baby Your Mine Outro |
| bonus tracks |
| Going Way Back feat. Fat Jon |
| Emcees & Rappers |
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| The idea itself is quite grande: take old and classic breaks, hand 'em to some good producers, have them cook up something new and spit to it. I mean, it worked perfectly for Nas' "Made You Look", who reshook the classic "Apache" sample. But if you compare that
song, with what J. Sands did with the same break on "Reminiscing Apache", then Salaam Remi created a Ferrari and Sands a Skoda. Especially as he also put the classic horn of "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)" over the beat,
to disastrous result (Sands again tries to combine two classic samples on "Brains" and again fails). So the idea is great, the outcome, in this case, pretty bad. |
| Nevertheless, there's plenty of fun moments on here. Especially for the older semesters amongst us. Because they can listen to "Times We Chill" featuring Caleesh and L.G. and be like: 'damn, who was it again that also used this sample?' And with an old brain, the
old geezers will need a minute, well, sometimes, not always, to figure it out. So who used the break again used on "The Manifest"? Well, you'll recognize it, even though The ARE did a little twiddling to it. Meaning he kept one or two
extra tones, while putting away others. And J. Sands does what he does for the whole duration of the album: he combines braggadocios verses, that are not afraid of also putting some more violent lines into their periphery, with conscious and political pondering, as well as the always necessary talking
about the game and dropping game to the women. |
| So there's plenty of braggadocio on "Ode To J. Sands", a lot of old school like getting the crowd hype on "Stealing And Rhyming", plenty of spitting game on "N.A.B.'s" (with D.L., Scales and Ree) and finally some serious pondering
on "In Jail" that also features Mood's Dante, good lyrics and a good Hi-Tek beat. With more women songs like "Brains" (featuring J. Rawls), the purists will cringe when the classic Public Enemy track "Too Much Posse" is changed to "Too Much Pussy". |
| There's obviously no wack sample on here. They sounded good back then and still sound good today (check "Baby Your Mine Outro" for example). But where this record truly fails is that the producers did too little to
the samples (with exceptions of course). The beats sound more like battle instrumentals, where the sample is looped, and very little changed (listen to "Love 'Sincerely Yours'") for example). This is a very big disappointment as it doesn't live up to the excellent idea. The producers
really should have put more effort in creating something new with something already used. But instead, while they are not re-creating the other song, they are rarely creating a new song that stands strongly in comparison to the first. One example of such is "Leave
It Alone" though, where Usef Dinero creates a strong ragga tune with dub effects and toasting by DJ Donnsville. J. Rawls also changes things for the determined "Whatever" (featuring Rashad and P.A. from The 3rd). |
| But these examples are so rare that you really must conclude that while the record does not sound bad, it really does not accomplish its mission. There was very little of true inspiration going into the way the breaks have been treated and J. Sands solid rhyming can't get us over
the disappointment. As the title suggests, there's a Vol. 2 planned. Well, maybe Sanders should give Remi a call, and have him explain on how to do it. |
| review: tadah |
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