London DJ Richy Pitch, an avid connoisseur of American rap, put together East Coast Hip-Hop: The Soulside for Unisex Records, a British label that concentrates on contemporary American soul and hip-hop compilations. While the designation "East Coast" may be a bit broad, as Midwestern artists Slum Village and Dabrye both have tracks included, the sound of the album is fairly consistent throughout: Native Tongue-influenced backpacker rhymes with clean production that utilizes a lot of soul samples. (Dabrye is the exception to ...
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London DJ Richy Pitch, an avid connoisseur of American rap, put together East Coast Hip-Hop: The Soulside for Unisex Records, a British label that concentrates on contemporary American soul and hip-hop compilations. While the designation "East Coast" may be a bit broad, as Midwestern artists Slum Village and Dabrye both have tracks included, the sound of the album is fairly consistent throughout: Native Tongue-influenced backpacker rhymes with clean production that utilizes a lot of soul samples. (Dabrye is the exception to this. His song "Game Over" is much harder and more violent than anything else on the album.) Established artists like Talib Kweli, De la Soul, MF Doom, Little Brother, Pete Rock, and King Britt all have tracks included, but this isn't a "best of" album: it's about style and groove, and Richy Pitch is more concerned about overall flow rather than the popularity of the songs. There are a few major players missing (A Tribe Called Quest, for example, though it's probably because they've released nothing new as a group since 1998, and the selections on East Coast Hip-Hop are all from 2003-2005), but there are still some strong cuts, especially Cesar Comanche's "Up and Down" and Medina Green's "Yo, Yo, Yo." The second disc, a remix of the songs by British DJ collective Blackbeard, doesn't serve much function except as a continuously playing set (really the only thing very noticeably different about it is that the track order is changed), but it doesn't take anything away from the strength of the first, either. It's not a definitive introduction to East Coast hip-hop, but it is a good sampler of what's happening in the new millennium. ~ Marisa Brown, Rovi
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