Taking his mixtape skills to another level,
Tony Touch shepherds a sprawling guest list deep into his world of hip-hop underground beats and spicy Latin flavors, with excellent results.
Touch blends the diverse styles of
Sean Paul,
Slick Rick,
Rubén Blades, and some
Wu-Tang-ers by keeping his beats very New York Hispanic, and very real. Most tracks feel like stream of consciousness freestyles -- especially when
Touch grabs the mike -- but here and there
Piece Maker, Vol. 2 offers up a song. A direct tale of trouble in the hood,
Slick Rick's "Trouble on the Westside Hwy" returns the rapper to his rightful place as king of the gruesomely humorous.
Sean Paul's cut is welcome reggaeton rather than limp crossover, and
N.O.R.E.'s swaggering Spanglish bridges the gap between
Fat Joe and
Juju's hard raps and
Touch's salsa breaks. The skits are actually funny, the ghost of
the S.O.S. Band turns up, and it's all blended so well the album feels more effortless than ambitious. It's the album's biggest problem, and one wishes the producer had come up with that extra track that would have turned
Piece Maker, Vol. 2 into a classic. But for a casual and languid ride through the downtown, you can always turn to
Touch. ~ David Jeffries