4 out of 5

Label: Interscope

Produced by: Cut Chemist, DJ Nu-Mark, Shafiq Husayn

So I’ll go ahead and forfeit my already next-to-none hip-hop credibility – as well as any stored belief in my writerly qualities, thanks to the conflicting nature of what I’m about to say – by offering that, if not for how slick of performers these guys are / were, and especially if not for Cut Chemist’s beats, Quality Control is just, like, an alright album.

 Slick performances?  Beats?  What else do you need?  And, yes, you’re right to an extent, which is why this album entertains front to back, head-bobbing the whole while.  It’s impossible not to feel pretty damn cool with this in your headphones, smiling at those constantly inventive rhymes and marveling at the catchy production.  But – and this is sort of why I’ve never been able to get full on board with the early alternative hip-hop movement guys like J5 spearheaded – there’s a lot of content missing.  A good deal of hip-hop is self-serving promotion, yes, but there are variations on how to approach that.  A lot of it, unfortunately, falls back on much of the same: talk about the classics; talk about the elements; talk about your crew being in sync; talk about dealing with the real shit.  It’s… a lot of talk, in other words.

Now, these guys are amazing wordsmiths, so they have a lot of clever ways of exhibiting that talk, and at first, the album is a riot of energy.  But it really starts to blend together to me, into one – admittedly great, but still one – long track whereon Cut plays a sample, lays down a beat, and then the guys trade off verses about the topics mentioned above.  It’s not until late in the album that the really powerful stuff emerges – Contribution and Twelve have meat on them, and that actual content seems to push the performances that much further, underlining them with an extra oomph of emotion.  And they don’t have to leave the braggadoccio behind, just mix it up: when Cut leads the way (as opposed to just laying the groundwork for rhymes), we get a new nice variation on the theme with The Game.  And of course, instrumental closer Swing Set shows us the magic our DJ would being to his later solo album, The Audience’s Listening.

In depth reviews of this album that are better educated in hip-hop history can set you straight.  To the casual passerby, e.g. me, this is undeniably slick and indelibly catchy, but rings a tad hollow for part of its shtick.  Though I’d by no means argue with its standing as a landmark release.