Legend, DJ Nice & Statik Selektah - Back 2 The Basics (Leaders Of The New School)

Whenever Statik Selektah drops somethin' new I always make a point to check it out because 9 outta 10 times it's gonna be noteworthy. The Lawrence, Massachusetts DJ teams up with relative unknowns DJ Nice and Legend to release a tape that for the most part is pretty flawless in delivering that wonderful "old school" and authentic Hip-Hop feeling. No surprise there, When Selektah goes in he always reps for that great east coast sound that has been somewhat lost in translation in the latter part of the 2K.

Starting things off correct, Torae blesses us with some nice, nice wordplay that for me was kinda the highlight of the first part of the tape. I'm biased though, I've been tryin to tell people bout Torae for a hot minute. The first ten tracks are all highly entertaining, boasting some pretty ill lyricism from the likes of Kiss, SkyZoo, Termanology, Stimuli and Joell Ortiz. Then the bullshit strikes. I don't know which one of the three DJ's decided it would be a good idea to poison this tape with the likes of Lil' Wayne and Kanye West's new, shitty Auto Tune'd single, but needless to say it was a dreaded move. I don't understand how you can throw these two into the mix on a tape like this, maybe Kanye could sneak on here, but definitely not with "Love Lockdown", SMH....And even worse, they put a really good Emilio Rojas track smack dab in the middle of that bullshit! LOL, sort of forcing you to navigate around the utter the lameness of Wayne and Kanye to hear some good stuff. Emilo Rojas deserves better.

Things get back on track quickly though, as AC, Talib Kweli, and John Robinson come through and bless the lineup and Statik releases one of his trademark Showoff remixes for D-Dot, Redman and Black Rob. Unfortunately it isn't long before we hear more ventures into undesirable mainstream waters. The bottonm half of the tape contains far too many unwanted tracks from over the hill and new coming, hit-seekers. Ludacris, Max B. and Curren$y all sort of inject themselves in bad spots with shitty music and take away from gloriously good moments like Big L's unreleased gem "Principles Of The New School", Naledge's Statik Selektah produced "Happy Birthday" and west coast underground sensation Blu's "HoldOn". All in all this is a really listenable mix, but I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't expected more from Selektah. That's kind of un-fair though considering he does provide the majority of the tapes best moments with his ever-improving production and remixing skills. Good but definitely not great, most likely you'll end up doing as I did, by downloading this, bumping it and then quickly moving on after you delete the five or so garbage tracks.

-BIG D O




01. Torae - Back 2 The Basics (Intro)
02. Jadakiss - Who Run This (Feat. Jay-Z) (Produced By Baby Grand)
03. Joell Ortiz - Sympathy
04. Styles P - Villian (Produced by J.Cardim)
05. Stimuli - Walk On Water 2
06. Skyzoo - Bragging Rights (Remix) (Produced by Analogic)
07. Fashawn - Our Way (Feat. Evidence) (Produced by Exile)
08. Godchild - Another Day, Another Dollar (Produced by Mike The Martyr)
09. Reks - Money On The Ave (Remix) (Feat. Skyzoo & Termanology)
10. Cambatta - What It Do (Produced by Boonie Mayfield)
11. Statik Selektah - Mr. Popularity (Feat. Consequence)
12. Cory Gunz - Lay Me Down (Produced By Nottz)
13. Lil Wayne - Still Standing (Feat. Junior Reid) (Snippet)
14. Emilio Rojas & M-Phazes - 585
15. Kanye West - Love LockDown
16. AC - I Engineer (Feat. The Senate)
17. DJ KO - Someday (Talib Kweli, Torae, John Robinson & Tiffany Paige)
18. Statik Selektah - This Is It (Showoff Remix) (Feat. D-Dot, Redman & Black Rob)
19. Ced Hughes - Back 2 The Basics (Like This) (Produced By Ced Hughes)
20. Ludacris - Undisputed (Feat. Floyd Mayweather Jr.) (Produced By Don Cannon)
21. B.o.B - I'll Be In The Sky (Produced By B.o.B)
22. ESSO - Thinkin' Out Loud IV
23. Max B - Live Comfortable
24. Big L - Principal Of The New School (Unreleased)
25. Naledge - Happy Birthday (Produced By Statik Selektah)
26. Fashawn - Because I'm Black
27. Blu - HoldOn
28. Theo - 2055 (The Future)
29. Rain - Back 2 Life (Produced By Scram Jones)
30. Curren$y - Whoa (Outro) (Produced By Kid Eight)

http://www.badongo.com/file/11361528