Now rolling with Roc-A-Fella y'all,
Clue?'s days of slinging tapes on your neighborhood corner are all but over. Recognized worldwide for reinventing the art of the mixtape,
Clue? enlisted some of hip-hop's biggest guns for his major-label debut. Aiding
Clue? in his quest for the Clueminati,
Nas revisits his
Illmatic roots with "Queensfinest." The pairing of
Cam'Ron,
Big Pun, Noreaga, and
Canibus on "Fantastic Four" is worth mentioning solely for the hypnotic verse
Canibus delivers. Jayhovah touches down, lending his labelmate a hand, combining forces with
Ja-Rule for some "Gangsta Shit."
Mobb Deep and
Big Noyd are at it once again on "The Professional," as they are merciless on a fiery, violin-laced number from Vic. Meanwhile,
EPMD and the Def Squad play hot potato on "It's My Thang '99" and
Raekwon lends his lyrical swordmanship to "Brown Paper Bag Thoughts." Like any mixtape or soundtrack, you have to accept the good and bad with a grain of salt.
Clue? makes feeble attempts to refresh cuts like "That's the Way" featuring
Mase,
Foxy, and Fabolous Sport and "I Like Control" featuring
Missy,
Mocha, and
Nicole Wray, leaving them virtually untouched.
Clue? definitely knows how to move the crowd and does serve up another installment of exclusive material, but he implements little of the turntable manipulation that makes DJs so vital to the art of hip-hop. As
Pete Rock stated ever so eloquently, "This I dedicate to those mixtapes I hate/Exclusive sh*t/It holds no weight/Put your skills on the plate/Backspin to '88." ~ Matt Conaway