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Various Artists
ESSENTIAL UNDERGROUND HIP-HOP 2
(Landspeed)
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With a name like that, you’d expect a compilation of young rappers and turntablists eager to blazon a new style in the face of the mainstream hip-hop juggernaut. Instead, the two-disc second volume of Landspeed’s Underground Hip-Hop series is a bunch of retreads by semi-recognizable artists from the mid ’90s trying to claw their way back to some semblance of relevance. All the ingredients required to produce a disjointed compilation are here, from dozens of cameos by rappers you’ve never heard of to not-so-underground tracks by the Game ("Compton, Compton") to lesser-known cuts by platinum rappers (Nas, Method Man). In spite of the misleading title, however, there is good to go with the bad. The Alchemist and Mobb Deep lay an alluring synth sample over a horn-heavy backdrop on "Backwards," "Little Drummer" from Ghostface and Method brings back memories of Wu-Tang’s heyday, and Boston’s own Krumbsnatcha provides some comic relief (and underground cred) with his juvenile impulses on "Neva Grow Up." None of those tracks makes this set "essential," but they do offset the rest of the thuggish garbage.
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