producer: phil rust

You shouldn't really put an unbalanced overfocus on the producer when reviewing an album. Then again, there are good reasons why to do that: first, there will be people checking out this album, that are struggling to understand the lyrics, be it due to a language barrier, or be it due to them not being able to relate to 'em. Second, if the lyrics are only occasionally offering something new, but are mingling in ponds that we've previously walked through, then the beats can still make or break a record. Then lastly, if you have one guy behind the decks, that is doing things different, and doing that good, we even get a third reason, why putting a little more attention to the beats, and while not forgetting about 'em, still neglect the lyrics at times.

And all of this rambling was necessary to open up this review of the South Jamaica Queens group Street Connect, who are spending a lot of time rhyming about what's happing in their area. That would be totally boring, if they would be doing it with weak flows, a weak delivery, or anything else that would hold the words back. But thankfully, these guys seem to enjoy themselves spitting, what makes it possible for them to not sound forced, or to even sound effortless. So that said, we can head on forward and check out the sonic.

What then makes it necessary to talk about the producer up in here. Ex-punk artist, Swiss transplant and dude with about a hundred styles, Phil Rust is responsible for all the tracks here. And as said, he is able to pull off various styles with all of them sounding like he never does anything else. Hence, Phil can do the party friendly "Jamaica Chicks", that also features Mr. Cheeks of The Lost Boyz, or the harsh, and impossible to mess with its cockiness "I Don't Wanna Hear It". With "Shoutin' Out" Phil is once more trying to get us dancing. Then again, this is not even trying anymore, as the beat on here is impossible to deny, it being plain butter. It comes with a disco sample, without it sounding corny. However quite tragically, the emcees struggle to completely connect with the beat, struggle to follow the pace, as well as fully being led by what the music is doing in the back. "Crazy" is kept simple and dark, while "Soul For Real" reminds us of a flavor that has been known to us for a couple of years now, without us managing though to put the finger on what exactly it is that we are thinking of. "It's Cool (The Way I Be)" is rather urging, while with the strings on "Rhyme Inventors" we do get something that appears to be typical for the Queens area as well as style, but that's a good rep of said steelo.

But if we dig for the cuts that are just a little too much to the 'eehh' side, then on top of that list is "Rich", that's too cheesy, as well as lyrically been chewed about a million times before. The chorus on "Hi Music" is rather annoying, while the whole cut is fitting the smoked out lyrics. "Ghetto" and "I See U" are cool enough, as they are recapturing the vibes Queensbridge artists like to rhyme over, but that's about it.

Hence this record is giving us solid lyricism from the bottom up perspective, while Phil Rust provides the beat vessels, that are able to make the product to be more than it would be with weaker beats. Okay, that's no real, groundbreaking finding, but it does separates the efforts that are to forget and those that are worth to give it a listen. And this is one of the latter.