This week’s NYR selection is Pete Rock’s Soul Survivor.
Where to start? I guess we could start at the beginning. The first track is an intro that sounds like an outro, with Pete giving thanks to people who’ve touched his life. But then we quickly get to the first track, which features the improbable pairing of Inspectah Deck and Kurupt. Deck does his thing in that unspectacular way in which he does things and Pete recites the lines written for him. But then Kurupt happens. Not only does Kurupt not shine—even though he rhymes after Pete drops his wooden lines—but he makes you wonder what beat he’s rhyming on, because it’s not the one you’re listening to.
And then I realized that my ambitious notion of revisiting past albums that I quickly neglected after purchase is a double-edged sword. Yeah, I may find some gems that I overlooked, but I also subject myself albums that are entirely the product of an era.
This one definitely falls into the latter category. The list of MCs on this album reads like a who’s who of hip-hop in ’98. Generally this means rappers who were either peaking in popularity (Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz) or those just past their zenith (MC Eiht), but mostly those guests just look like a sad case of “whatever happened to…?”
Don’t believe me? Vinia Mojica is there. Ms. Jones is there. OC and Rob O are there too. So’s Heavy D. Yeah, Black Thought and Common show up as do four members of the Wu Tang Clan (within the first four tracks!), but it’s mostly folks who were hot for a moment and fell off (Noreaga, Cappadonna, Beenie Man).
Still the album isn’t completely lackluster. Anytime you can have Pete Rock and Large Professor on the same track it’s going to be an enjoyable experience, even if it’s a remake. The beats are solid productions that make you wonder why Pete had such a hiatus at the dawn of the millennium. And it’s fun to go back to a time when you couldn’t wait to hear a new Method Man track, thought OC might be the next to blow, and the closest you came to the South was the south side of Chicago via Common.
Cue the theme to All in the Family.
