:: Bomb Hip-Hop
Turntablism is often like a Jackson Pollack painting: you either love the splattered layers of sonic color or hate the whole thing. This compilation by a UK DJ known only as THE RUF is both at the same time: brilliant and undecipherable.
THE RUF definitely has a love for the old school of hip-hop lyricism. Not onlt that, credit RUF for having a Premier knack of capturing great vocal hooks from sonic pop culture and making it what one could best categorize as Sci-Fi Hip-Hop. Tracks such as "Cosmic Symphony" and "Superhero" epitomize this sound. Everybody from Audio Two to Pete Rock to Warner Brothers cartoons gets dapped at some point in the mix.
This Bomb Hip-Hop distributed double album also has a double-agenda though: people in techno who hate hip-hop and in hip-hop who hate techno are being forced to submit to RUF's will as he blurs the lines between the genres with high energy beats and heavy basslines. Title tracks like "The Tekno Hater" and "Hip-Hop Hate PT3" alone drop the hint, but it's the music that makes you forget the agenda and shake your groove thing: exactly what THE RUF undoubtedly wants.
This Jeep Beat Collective will be a Technics Chainsaw Massacre in any booming system. For others, it may leave them feeling more dazed and confused than a Pauly Shore movie. Too bad -- they really don't know what they're missing out on.
Music Vibes: 7 of 10 Scratch Vibes: 7 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 8 of 10
Originally posted: January 20, 1999
source: www.OHHLA.com