atu

BRACE 4 IMPAK
DA BEATMINERZ
Rawkus/Virgin
Ranking 7/10

The latest crew to come out of the Rawkus camp is Da Beatminerz. This production quintet consisting of Evil Dee, Mr. Walt, Baby Paul, Rich Blak and Chocolate Ty seek to wreak havoc with the release of Brace 4 Impak.

The album is entirely produced by Da Beatminerz and each track relies on the lyrical flow of different featured street artists. Included in the emcee barrage are The Flipmode Squad, Talib Kweli, Naughty By Nature, Pete Rock, Royce Da 5'9, Ras Kass, The Cocoa Brovaz, Jayo Felony, Lord Tariq, Black Moon, Total, Freddie Foxxx and many more. In total, Brace 4 Impak features 25 artists on its 16 tracks.

Da Beatminerz style is a typical Rawkus style, centered on 'for tha streets' beats. Unfortunately, they should have invested a bit more time into mastering many of the tracks: When played on an average stereo system, the bass quality was very poor. Thus making it difficult to find the ideal stereo setup on which to evaluate the album. After overcoming this obstacle, Da Beatminerz beats were only a shade above average. But Baby Paul's production was impressive, standing above all others, especially on two of the albums best tracks, "Thug Love" featuring Naughty By Nature and "Ghetto 2 Ghetto" featuring Tefelar Cordell. Other impressive tracks were "The Anti-Love Movement" featuring Talib Kweli & Total, "Open" featuring Caron Wheeler & Pete Rock and the first single, "Take That" featuring The Flipmode Squad & Vinia Mojica.

Apart from the poor bass quality, Da Beatminerz have put together a good street album. It's an impressive debut, but falls a few stars short of amazing. If you're feelin' Rawkus Records or if you're looking for a street collaboration with a fresh street production style, then check this album out.

Click here to read buy album or read CDNow's album review.

Troy Neilson
This review was written September 6, 2001