producers: the creators

UK producers like to hang with US emcees. As witnessed on this project by The Creators. And when they invite to the party, all types of cats show up. Like on the operating as intro "The Mission", that has us witness the turntable majesty Mr. Thing. He slices the sacrificed wax over a simple beat, that isn't the important aspect of this anyways. The beat does get more important on "The Music" that features ex-artifact El Da Sensei. The bells on this allow us to enjoy this track, and so does the comfortable mic spitting. Interludes are featured throughout the album, and we are now approaching the first. Now these interludes constantly break the flow, act as 'see who we also know' and are pretty annoying many times, while sometimes they contain an actually really nice beat. The first one, called "We Waitin'" features the voices of Evidence and Iriscience. Evidence then also puts his voice to "Heart Pound", and he brings his Dilated People / Beat Junkies DJ Babu along, to do what he does with his talking flow, bragging a little, mentioning his DJ a little, and trying to give the beat more memorable, and failing.

For the "The Legacy" interlude, Marley Marl, Masta Ace and Craig G picked up the phone to call in, and an animated Craig G is demanding for a copy of the album. And he deserves one, as he's on "That's My Word", a track that also features Will Pack. The funky guitar on this gives us a lounging mood. A mood we are quite afraid, will be taken away from us, when the next interlude comes on. But "All Yours" is keeping it bouncy, with interesting percussion sounds, and this time T La Rock drops by. Landing in Cali, The Creators snatch up Phil Da Agony to drop some rhymes over an medieval sounding "Kronkite". Phil sounds like a deruffed Xzibit, or a spitting image of Defari, but he's still the one that makes this track worth listening. Now Plus One being a DJ, he keeps his mouth shut, but screams with his hands on "Fonk Flavor", before "In And Out" teams up the Creators with Consequence.

DJ Mighty Mi is next on "Zillo", that features some nice xylophones. Next on the guestlist are Out Da Ville on "Street Conexions". These horns give the track a nice big band feel, but the sound chaos opted for during the chorus takes away much from the overall impression. What gets us to "Zooted" and "Hoe's And Dough", both featuring Mike Zoot. The first being a non-phone interlude, the latter being a full length cut, that's okay, with a Spanish guitar, while Zoot is on a miniskirt topic. The boom bap shines throughout the collaged "Creators (Rise On Top)", while the beautiful original that should be on this album, is substituted with an unspectacular adaptation, called "(Another) Another World" featuring Mos Def and Talib Kweli. This is a track that can get the party started, but lacks the plushness, that made the first version as hard hitting as it is.

"Internatio Nal Ghetto" is a little wave to the other places out there, with Juliano handling the scratching. Tribel along with the piano then suffer to make "W.A.R." appealing. And compared to that, "The Aftermath" is much nicer, while still somewhat basic, until the melancholy horn picks up this track and rises safely with it. But that's again only an interlude. The next complete track "No Love" feat. F.T. gets our head nodding, gets our head shaking, but does not get our head's full attention. However, "Before We Touch", with more scratching by Juliano serves as a good warm up to "Watch Us Touch", the second track featuring Consequence. Why the vibe of dramatic is switched to strangely jazzy, remains unanswered. This time though, the bass and the obvious drum manage to work.

As does the beat that's layered behind "Enter The Stage", that features the phone talking of Madlib. How come such a nice guitar and beat is used only for an interlude? Anyways, having gathered up his fellow Lootpack buddies, 'Lib sticks around to do "The Cypher". And to our enjoyment, the beat is nice, and by the time we go to "Skits, Blunts And Hip Hop", with Diamond D waiting on the phone, the impression we have of this album is getting better again. "Oh Yeah" wants to get us dancing, despite an annoying chorus, the overall vibe of this track featuring Shawn J. Period and Mike Zoot, achieves its goal. And as we move beyond "The Coming", another dope composition surfacing out of a dub chamber, we reach the highlight, the climax, the track that tells us how this should have been from the get go: "Hard Margin" feat. Mos Def and Talib Kweli. This beat right here is butter, it's different, something flipped, something that works with the emcees, something we like to pump loud, something we will return to listen to over and over again.

What can't be said about the whole album. With 15 full tracks, and just about as many interludes, the overkill is evident. Overkill in a 'filler' sense, even though the complexity of the beats is remarkable, while not necessary always tight. There's just too much hip hop out now, that can live up to a solid standard, that being solid can't be enough anymore. One has to do something that hits the listener, that makes him go: 'damn'. What we get here is: 'aight, okay'. And it's scary that we seem to be more and more content with that level of appeal.