admin
22 December 2023
I think it’s safe to say that rocksteady affiliate Tony Touch has gone beyond the status of underground legend. Call me crazy, but when you’ve released more than 75 original mix tapes on your own label imprint, and have worked with the likes of Wu-Tang Clan, Big Daddy Kane, Eminem, and De La Soul, I think that elevates your status.
Touch returns with part two of his Piece Maker project, and serves another of his world famous original mix tapes-- 19 tracks, all-star studded-- of the Nyuorican soul-fueled hip-hop he’s been making since the early ‘80s. And everyone’s on this disc: Method Man, Slick Rick, Large Professor, Dead Prez, Fat Joe,.. aw, hell. There’s too many to list.
Touch handles the bulk of the production, only handing over the boards to a handful of notables-- RZA, Erik Sermon, Ju Ju, and Pete Rock, among others. He also co-writes, and rhymes on some tracks. He shines on “Tony Navaja”, which features salsa legend Reuben Blades; “Dimelo”, which sounds like Touch is rhyming over a funkified neighborhood makeshift orchestra; and “Click Bang”, where he chops and loops a Roy Ayers' sample for Doo Wop to work over, only to seamlessly bleed it into the Sean Paul collabo “Ay Ay Ay”. Plus, there are these super-short skits making fun of MC battles that had me laughing.
Save for the P. Diddy appearance (which is always a boo-boo in my book), you really don’t have to skip any tracks. It’s a good party record with a lot of dope new music, and more guest artists than “We Are the World” and Hip Hop For Respect combined.
Touch returns with part two of his Piece Maker project, and serves another of his world famous original mix tapes-- 19 tracks, all-star studded-- of the Nyuorican soul-fueled hip-hop he’s been making since the early ‘80s. And everyone’s on this disc: Method Man, Slick Rick, Large Professor, Dead Prez, Fat Joe,.. aw, hell. There’s too many to list.
Touch handles the bulk of the production, only handing over the boards to a handful of notables-- RZA, Erik Sermon, Ju Ju, and Pete Rock, among others. He also co-writes, and rhymes on some tracks. He shines on “Tony Navaja”, which features salsa legend Reuben Blades; “Dimelo”, which sounds like Touch is rhyming over a funkified neighborhood makeshift orchestra; and “Click Bang”, where he chops and loops a Roy Ayers' sample for Doo Wop to work over, only to seamlessly bleed it into the Sean Paul collabo “Ay Ay Ay”. Plus, there are these super-short skits making fun of MC battles that had me laughing.
Save for the P. Diddy appearance (which is always a boo-boo in my book), you really don’t have to skip any tracks. It’s a good party record with a lot of dope new music, and more guest artists than “We Are the World” and Hip Hop For Respect combined.
artid
2076
Old Image
6_7_tonytouch.jpg
issue
vol 6 - issue 07 (mar 2004)
section
entertainmental