PETE ROCK - "SOUL SURVIVOR"
Pete Rock has always had dope beats on his records with C.L. and his collabos with InI, Mic Geronimo, Lost Boyz, etc... He's production has been many times, the highlight of the albums. Now, he has a solo joint with the usual dope beats and a variety of dope stars. The single "True Master" is dope with Inspectah Deck and Kurrupt. Though, I'm not a big fan of DPG, I think he does pretty good on this and Heltah Skeltah's new album. The tope cuts are "Strange Fruit" with Tragedy, Cappadona, and Sticky Fingaz. Sticky totally steels the show! In my opinion, he's the illest MC out there. "Verbal Murder" with Big Pun, Noreaga, and Common is dope too. The beat is mesmerizing! "Half Man Half Amazin" with Method Man is brilliant hip-hop joint. Like "Tru Master", the chorus consists of scratches from a wide variety of hip hop classics all thrown together like a true hip hop record should be. "The Game" featuring Raekwon, Prodigy, and Ghostface is another dope jam and so is "Truly Yours" with Large Professor and Cool G Rap. Like DJ Premier of Gangstarr, Pete Rock is a true master at the art of D.J.ing and production.. Though he's not the dopest MC, he's much better than Puffy! Pete's not wack... at all. Some cuts are not that great. There's a three song R&B section in the middle of the album... The beats are good and the vocals are smooth but it doesn't do anything special. This would be a perfect album if Pete stuck to the hardcore guests. It would be a brilliant album if Sadat X, Artifacts, Organized Konfusion, Tribe Called Quest,or  any of the Boot Camp Click were on it.. No doubt, this is one of the best produced albums of the year but... it just needs to be hard all the way through...
beats: 9/10,
lyrics: 7.5/10,
production:9.5/10,
Album flow: 7/10,
Creativity/Originality: 9 /10 ,
Hardcore rating: 7.5/10.
[ Overall Rating : 8.25 / 10 ]


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