VARIOUS ARTISTS
Wild Pitch Classics (Wild Pitch)
Reviewed by Jason Thornberry


It's crazy that I can now call the music of the Ultramagnetic MC's and early Gang Starr "old school hip-hop", but it's true. I can hear some distinct differences between the stuff that Latee bust in 1987, and the baffling, verbal one-upmanship of emcee Aesop Rock circa 2001. Aesop can actually make the guys in Bone Thugs seem intelligible. Enunciation was of immense importance back in the eighties, when most of this compilation was recorded, aside from the hard-hitting new track by O.C. Gangstarr once said it was the voice, and it certainly was. Rap was still in diapers back then.

Nowadays the production on an album can sometimes take your mind off the fact that whoever's rhyming sounds like he's got a mouthful of potato salad. The so- called "pop guard" keeps onions and mayonnaise off the microphone sometimes too. If you put DJ Premier, Dr. Dre, Kutmasta Kurt, RZA, The Automator, Madlib, or DJ Shadow in the vicinity of the mixing board and you can even have Drew Carey bust a rhyme over a song that'll somehow work.

Kool Keith and Guru are both still around, and the fact that they each are even more lyrically progressive now makes them two of my absolute favorite Mic Controllers. Of any era. Keith went from "teaching ducks how to act" in the Ultramagnetic MC's to sporting yellow sideburns, grey hair, white eyes, and a sky blue face as Dr. Octagon (alter ego #89), on an album that quickly became the hip-hop Pet Sounds. Guru, who's been fusing rap and jazz together since his experiment on the Mo' Better Blues soundtrack has one of the new-ish Gangstarr ten year anniversary cd's waiting in the stereo next to my bed as we speak. My only problem is deciding which one to listen to as I lay me down to sleep. Both cds show the very discernable growth and development from 1989's No More Mr. Nice Guy to All Tha Ca$h recorded a decade later for Full Clip, the Gang Starr commemorative collection.

Wild Pitch Records was there back in the beginning, and showcases sixteen tracks here. Most of them will make you wonder just what the hell you were doing the first time they came around. Let's see...late eighties...Guns N Roses? There was Tone Loc and Nuclear Assault, but the former wasn't on the standing on the charts long enough to make much of an impression. Leave that to (coughing) an Oakland rapper with big pants who admonished us to pray, so we could make it that day. Do you really need excuses to find this Wild Pitch disc? Latee anyone? Main Source? N-Tyce did nothing for me though. Nothing at all. What What is one of the few female emcees I really like. I'm not trying to sound sexist. I just don't feel most female rappers.

Great tracks by Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth, the UMC's, those Ultramagnetics, Chill Rob G, the Coup (who never disappoint) and many more. I'll give this a solid B.

© 2001 - Jason Thornberry