OC & AG - Oasis

Well, it's not the long awaited DITC record, but it's pretty close. With the DITC crew spread all around the country at present, it looks like it's up to OC and AG to represent. You can't argue, I'm a Lord Finesse man first and foremost, but put OC and AG together and they can wreck a mike like few other duos. Maybe you heard Weed And Drinks? Well, this whole record bangs like that. Most of the production is by someone called E Blaze, although Lord Finesse contributes a couple tracks and Statik Selectah and Primo drop in for intro and scratch appearances. No guests either, save for the odd female singing a hook. None needed, either.

Oasis isn't trap rap or snap music, it's new hip hop with an old school flavor. Both parties are mad lyrical, but not with needlessly polysyllabic backpacker verbosity, just two brothers riding a beat as smooth as astroglide covered ball bearings. If you like real hip hop, you owe it to yourself to head over to the OC and AG web presence and pick up Oasis right away.

Diamond D - The Huge Hefner Chronicles

Fools had been clowning this record on the net to the point where I was kinda dreading checking this out. I'm not sure why I drank the haterade. I hate a lot as it is without other fools buying me rounds. I'm glad to find that I'm not disappointed.

Diamond has been around forever. Like he was Jazzy Jay's crate carrier forever. He's released two bona fide classic hip hop records in Stunts, Blunts and Hip Hop and Hatred, Passions and Infidelity, reps for the Bronx and D.I.T.C and has produced a ton of straight-up bangers over the years for Busta, Fat Joe, KRS-One and a ton more. He even won a Grammy for his stuff on the Fugees The Score record. 

Which only means that he probably can't get arrested outside of NYC because of all you wack-ass trend jockers that can't live without your fucking Lupe Fiasco or Kanye records. Or maybe the current patron saint of overrated rappers: Jay-Z.  Granted, Diamond's last indie record wasn't his best, but even now it's a fair shade better than the new Young Jeezy record. Luckily, Babygrande snapped up our hero for The Huge Hefner Chronicles. 

It's a solid record. Most hip-hop records are way too fucking long. And while I'm on the subject: let's talk skits. I'm not sure who brought the skit into hip-hop records. Sadly, I bet Prince Paul might be to blame, and if that is the case, he shouldn't have to take the fall for a million self-aggrandizing weed carriers reliving their Scarface Halloweens of their past, but the skit really needs to banned outright. If you want to do a little Paid In Full type intro, so be it, but lose the fucking skits guys. That expunged: This record has no fucking skits and as a result is better than most of the hip-hop you'll hear this year. There are a couple missteps, the R&B tinged Good Tyme being the most egregious, but save for that steamer, The Huge Hefner Chronicles is one of the few hip hop records I've heard this year that I can listen to all the way through. I can admit that the Huge Hefner appellation is a bad idea, but it's not like he's taken on the personae like one of Kool Keith's alter egos or anything. It's odd that, save for the intro that features Fat Joe (not a skit, mind you!) his D.I.T.C affiliates are conspicuous in their absences, but there is a great collabo with Sadat X to keep all you old school heads happy. Trust me, you want this. You can get The Huge Hefner Chronicles from your friends at Babygrande here. There's a pretty bad-ass playlist of some of his best tracks from the past there too. Socially network with him afterward here if you are of a mind.

R