Remember the days. Remember the days when hip hop was all about making you feel good. Remember the days, man.

Fast forward to ninety-now (well, maybe make a short break in 1995 when the B.U.M.S. album dropped) and if you look further than what the mainstream tries to force feed you, you should be checking for an album by the oddly named People Under The Stairs. With the stereotypically named album "The Next Step", their step is actually back, looking at the past, finding out what was so good back then and what is missing now. They are taking that, shaking it up and putting out some of the freshest music. What reminds this reviewer of mentioning another fresh crew from the new and improved LA area: Ugly Duckling, but wait, this is a P.U.T.S. review.

Follow the spiritual Intro and listen to "Ten Tough Guys", a funny tale of 9 emcees (or so) going against Double K, before Thes One steps to the plate to drop one of the nicest rhymes of 1999, all about proving that his opponent doesn’t exist. Check some excerpts: "like the rope to the boat to the dock, you're not free yet, man / you're sick, stuck, caught, sick in the head", "diseased with that mononuclear, what I look like money?! / that Latin listening to Coolio? So I ask, / what was your mom's task when she had you?", "I know I exist and I prove it cause I'm listening to you / but I ask, what if God was an evil genius who only made you believe you were true? / and your life was nothing man! Just a really long dream / and when you die you'll start a whole new life, a whole new dream / but that was just a dream, and it seems man you can't break out the cycle / Am I crazy? go to your church and ask your white God if I'm right though". But don’t miss out to check the whole rhyme yo.

On "Mid-City Fiesta" the People are on their way to a party, rhyming back and forth, getting drunker and drunker in the process, what is nicely reflected in the beat, dropping lines like: "(Double K) turned up the beats and hopped on the ten / talking lot about the pigeons that we bout to see again / yo, I'm tryin to stop drinkin, but nigga pass the cup! / this fool Thes is freestylin, almost passed the exit up / (Thes One) because the drinkin and driving's a guaranteed no no / cause with the bottle in my hand, it's fuckin up my rhyme flow / I went right, kinda slow, at the bottom of the ramp / ten car caravan, undisputed champion / (Double K) pulled up to the place, had to find a parking space / this ugly bitch was looking at us so I give the gas face / (Thes One) hey yo, her friends was butt too but they jocked this big crew / told the bitch to jump in the jeep, I'll take you to the zoo".

The fun continues on "The Turndown". A tale of three emcees and one female, hooking up with two of ‘em, doing the "fourplay was in effect before I closed the front door / you know how it goes, fingers in her shoobie doobie / whispered in her ear that I wanted her to do me" as Double K puts it.

Now as dope as the lyrics are, the beats take this album over the top. Undoubtedly jazzy, from the Intro until the last drum kick of the Outro, this album soaks in samples and makes them their own. Be it a Spanish tune at the beginning of "Death Of A Salesman", horns that would make Pete Rock proud on "Hardcore", mega funky drums on "Wannabes", the Sade sample of "Slow Bullet", the unstoppable niceness of "San Fransicso Knights", the bounce of "The Next Step II", the shroomingness of "D.A.R.E." or the funky piano of "Play It Again", there is just not one single wack beat on this album here. And even the weaker cuts like "The Tamburo 5" and "Asshole" have their own charm.

With all this fun, funk, jazz, there is not more you can ask for. And Thes One sums it up best when he says on "Mid-City Fiesta": "It's the true B-Boy [shit] and that always gets respect". Must have.