As long as I have been following the career moves of Apollo Brown, I have yet to be let down by any project he releases. From instrumental projects to full-length, collaborative albums with established and lesser known MC's, Apollo Brown always lays a good foundation for beats on all of his projects.
With the collaboration with OC, I was surprised but excited to hear both all-new tracks and to see how OC could sound over the new songs. I have checked OC's work in the last few years but had yet to feel "wowed" by the sounds or lyrics for along time, but I was ready to hear something new. Borrowing some instrumentals from previous beat-tape albums but using mostly all-new tracks, OC and Apollo Brown bring their A game on this album.
OC sounds "fresh" over these new beats and the sound is a consistent mix of boom-bap samples, hard drums, and thoughtful lyrics. Stand out tracks for me are "The Pursuit", "Anotha One", "We The People", "The First 48, "Just Walk" and "Options. Something about the production makes it feel like a soundtrack to a movie like Rocky or at least a soundtrack to slap people to.
Overall, the album makes me glad to see Golden Era MC's still making quality work and working with up-and-coming producers to bridge the gap for folks who grew up on the "Time's Up" OC and wanted to hear more. If you have never heard of OC, this is a good (re)introduction and the album gives you plenty of brain food to feed off to counteract any Young Money saturation on the current airwaves.
Listen Up!
For lack of a rating system, I will give this album 4.5 stars/mics/ out of 5. This is according to MY system, which may not align with yours, but if I listen to an album more than a few times a week and still want to hear it again, it gets my stamp of approval.
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