Throwback: MOOD - "Karma"

This track changed the way I thought about what was called "local" rap when I heard it the first time. I was hesitant to listen to anything non-Rawkus at the time and the cover art was just a star of david in outerspace with the word MOOD typed across it. I was suspect of the relatively lo-fi look of the art, but the title DOOM I thought meant I was in for a tired horror-core album. However, when I was examining the liner notes, I saw DJ Hi-Tek in the credits and wondered if it was the same one working with Talib Kweli (oddly enough who was featured on the album), so I decided to let it play. I was impressed with the quality of music and the dark but intelligent lyrics, especially coming out of the Cincy area of Ohio (where no rap of note had ever come from that I had ever heard). The beats were chill and well-crafted and the lyrics were on some Midwestern version of the Wu-Tang mindset. The track even flipped a Nina Simone track I had heard a million times and never thought to sample at that point also. Needless to say, I stepped my own research up when it came to underground rap going forward and still rock it to this day.

* note the variations in name spelling from later releases.