Official reissue. Doom self-released Special Blends in extremely limited quantities way back in 2004. The project found the Metal Faced Villain showcasing his production skills by dropping classic rap and r&b vocals over his Special Herbs beats. The result has become something of a cult classic and his been out of print for over a decade. The original Lab review - Before mash-ups, there were the Special Blends. Problem was that this Doom side project was impossible to track down. For Doom huggers the amount of material here is staggering - two volumes, 27 tracks, chock full of smog inducing, air freshening beats. The acapellas Doom selects stay away from the obvious for the most part, and at multiple times he hits unlikely favorite spots in my hip-hop crate. The end result is enlightening, like reviewing the last 10 years of hip-hop through the eyes of mask. No need to go through each track, I'll just point out some winners: D'Angelo, Big Pun, Erykah Badu, MOP, De La Soul, MC Lyte, Raekwon, Lil Vicious, Method Man, and Big Tymers. Recommended.

• black double vinyl pressing
  
• limit (2) per customer
• music label: Metal Face Records 2016
  

reviewed by the mgmnt 07/2016