eMusic Review 0
Putting together an album heavy on ’90s throwback hip-hop and subtitling it No One Cares is a self-effacing move — at least on the surface. But pitted against a landscape obsessed with basedness, swag, hashtags and other memetic mutations, a traditionalist collection like this makes that statement feel more like a call-to-arms than a rock-kicking sulk.
Queensbridge DJ, producer and Rock Steady Crew affiliate JS-1 has staked his well curated Ground Original series of all-star hip-hop sessions on a fantasy league roster of lyricists’ lyricists, and this latest entry weighs a ton: We get KRS-One in elder statesman mode (“Boom Slap”), a murderer’s row of New York hardcore fixtures in Lil’ Fame, Joell Ortiz and Freddie Foxxx (“Reppin’ NY), O.C. grimily flipping vintage DITC (“Life… Word”), and appearances by everyone from golden-age icons (Sadat X, Kool G Rap, Jeru the Damaja) to latter-day underground favorites (C-Rayz Walz, Akrobatik, Guilty Simpson) and rising indie stars (Homeboy Sandman, Tanya Morgan’s Von Pea).
