MC Epic (from Mentality) - Party Jam # 4

Hear The Track Here

If you have been hanging in the Soundclick forums, this musician needs no introduction and I can't believe I never reviewed him before. I could have sworn I had, but if I did, the evidence is lost in cyberspace somewhere. As you may have gathered, MC Epic is a hip hop musician (a rapper to be precise) aided and abetted by Breon Warwick. I'm still not sure this is a solo project for Epic, or just something outside of Mentality (his main group). There again, this is hip hop we are talking about and - as you know - it can be a bit scary in there. Now I don't know about you guys, but I do demand certain things from the hip hop genre for it even to crawl to the starting line, let alone get my attention. One of the prime requisites is that it has at least some intelligence.

Knuckle draggers, I seen 'em all.

Secondly, and maybe more importantly, it has to have credibility. Not musical credibility, but lyrical credibility. The reason, I believe, Eminem has the respect he does is because he lived/lives it. Mind you MC Epic gets off to a good start with 'All original instrumentation; no samples', a definite plus for me. Musically, Party Jam #4 is pretty smart, a kinda jazzy/bluesy piece stitched together by some neat Rhodes licks (down to Epic himself I think). What comes out full blown in the space between your ears is a very classy chunk of hip hop with a terrific chorus that screams sing me, sing me. Not quite sure what all the baby noises are about but hey, at least it does work with the track.

I really try to be colour blind when reviewing rap but, let's face it, it's a hard subject to dodge, especially since the explosion of the genre into the mainstream, commercial market. What I always try and go by is the tracks sound and one that score MC Epic doesn't put a foot wrong, and about six dozen in the right place. Call me anal, but whenever I hear tracks like this I always measure them against Need For Speed soundtracks, and Party Jam would fit right in there with the high octane, **** me fast cars and crash (in my case) thrills. Smooth piece of hip hop too, and that never hurts does it?

Highly Recommended party jam (s'wot it sez)