SOUL BROTHER #1

SOUL BROTHER #1 by Pete Rock and CL Smooth.

Correspondents report slight disappointment at the lack of hip hop beats on the blog, and we can't afford to ignore our correspondents here. Soul Brother #1 is from Mecca and the Soul Brother. It's a subgenre that has pretty much disappeared (or at been completely marginalized) from the hip hop scene as far as I can tell. The dorm-friendly "philosophical" hip hop from the early to mid-90s, post-Public Enemy, Tribe-Called-Quest-rap. (ed.: For this read, what happened to the music we used to love, what happened to our youth? :)

The thing that really strikes me listening to this track (and the album) again, is how tight the production is, and I mean to give that description both positive and negative connotations there. The craftsmanship is there for all to see. Pete Rock was a hard-working producer, and you can tell he spent a long long time on each of the breaks and accents. By the same token, I don't hear too many risks in the production. It just seems slightly too respectable.

LISTEN.

Photo: View from the dog run (3).