A New Way Of Thinking
label: threshold

producers: kut masta kurt, joey chavez, protest.

year of release: 2002
 
A crew, not unlike a monster, always has a head. Or something that appears before your eyes first. Skoolyard are no exception. Head's name: Planet Asia. Profession artist on Interscope Records. Yes, he's one of the few underground super stars that managed to wrestle himself into a major label deal (without a sign of a release yet though). That's just one why these cats are not yet the "Rap Moguls" they claim to be on the same titled song on the crew's debut EP "A New Way Of Thinking" that drops on Kut Masta Kurts Threshold label, where the Motion Man (reviewed here) album also just dropped.
So how many dreams hip hop allows to be talked about, "Cigar Splitta's" comes more realistic (uhm), in all its braggadocios poisonous state. However, the song gets us going further because of the better Kurt production. This is somehow the signature tune, as the cats exchange the microphone quicker than a bunch of excited kids exchange baseball cards, and the chorus features a 'skoolyard' chant. The pacing forward vibe gets somewhat corrupted on the rhythmically chaotic "Sit Back And Chill", where the rhymes are battling again, and the beat is circling around the possible loop for quite some time, before it settles.

tracklisting
1. SY Intro
2. Rap Mogul's
3. Cigar Splitta's
4. Rollin'
5. Fashion Show
6. Days Of Our Lives
7. Sit Back And Chill
8. Yard Style
9. Rap Mogul's (instr.)
10. Cigar Splitta's (instr.)
11. Rollin' (instr.)
12. Fashion Show (instr.)
13. Days Of Our Lives (instr.)
14. Sit Back And Chill (instr.)
15. Yard Style (instr.)
There's three songs though, where Kut Masta let someone else hook up the beat. First there is the Joey Chavez produced "Rollin'". With a toned down vibe, it does a Fred Durst and keeps rollin', rollin', rollin'. Planet is however to Fred Durst like Dexter of the laboratory is to Fred Flintstone. And Planet's homies can rhyme too, as they (Kubiq, Shake, Supa Supreme) sound comfortable and come solid with their words and flows and rhetoric that is not trying to save the world. "Days Of Our Lives" is certainly not of that agenda either, however, the four speak on more relevant to back in the days issues, over a flutey Protest beat. And Protest also provides "Yard Style", a jazzier track, where the voices are badly recorded and the beat too loudly mixed. What however gives this a spontaneous, cipher like feel, what's not a bad thing.
Now the worst moment of the record comes with the beat on "Fashion Show" that is a skip quick. And speaking of beats, you are treated to the instrumental versions of the ditties on the second half of the record. And then at the end of this, and note, this is a CD, you get DJ scratch tools. Uhm, okay. So is the CD scratcher already that accepted? However, to conclude this: it's a quick and fast offering that allowed the Skool to throw something out there, to get the name even more into the brain of folks, hopefully on the way to that Planet Asia album.
review: tadah
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