As I morph into a middle age man, aka fantasy sports stud, there's started a continual process where I weed out my vinyls. You would think the spastic, over enunciating, raver friendly cousin of Ice Cube would be the first to go, especially cause these records go for Paypal. But strangely, this LP still has a place as one of my favorite emcee records (all the hardcore kids go: Kool G Rap! Rakim! Biggie!). An aged Del is annoying, but a young, Sony boom box with Hiero stickers toting Del was one in a scrillion. The word play, rhyme schemes and enthusiasm in every one of these tracks is like nothing else. And as I sit listening to my instrumental white label of this record, you can chalk it up as one of the overlooked west coast production pieces. Don't believe it? Checkout tracks like "Catch A Bad One," "Wrongplace," "Wack Emcees," "Don't Forget," and "No More Worries." My favorite though is the proto-Quasimoto track "Worldwide" featuring the talented Unicron. I ain't gonna lie, for the longest time I thought that was Del's protege, but it turns out it was just a filter effect. "Boo Boo Heads," the proto-No Pigeons, was also a favorite, rhyming "Murda" with "Word Up." Marv Albert says "Yesss!" A great repress with original double vinyl intact. Hurry up and buy.

• black double vinyl pressing
• music label: Elektra 2005

reviewed by the mgmnt 05/2006