The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 

Quite Nyce & Raydar Ellis | Champs vs. the League

Brick (2009)
By CHRIS FARAONE  |  April 6, 2009
3.5 3.5 Stars
090410_Quite_m

Boston's very own Brick Records is generally good for at least one of each year's most grounded desert-island-worthy rap releases, and Champs vs. the League fills the bill.

For their debut collaboration, Quite Nyce (of RADIx renown) and Raydar Ellis (off the Short Bus and Berklee College alumni rosters) come genuinely positive without beating heads with cliché Afro-pick rhetoric and Muslimisms. As Ellis states in his insightful liner notes, the pair simply "chopped it up with some MCing. Nuff said."

On production, Ellis impresses even more than on his extraordinary 2006 debut, Late Pass, having found a comfortable spot on the drum-clacking side of the beat cafeteria near Hi-Tek and DJ Spinna. "Holla Bout a Dolla" is as fun as serious gets; love and life are negotiated on the memorable "Build Up" and "Broken Pieces."

The League's freshest moment — not a surprise when Project Move cats get involved — is "Love Is" featuring Anonymous and Moe Pope. That's hardly a stab at the album's two designated "champs" but rather a nod to how effectively Boston's mature black rap establishment has conspired to carry Native Tongue torches into the new millennium.
Related: Deck Demons, Insides out, Tom Jones | 24 Hours, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Music Reviews,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

ARTICLES BY CHRIS FARAONE
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   HACKING PACT  |  December 02, 2009
    On an unheralded fall weekend right before Thanksgiving, a roomful of amateur hackers and Web rock stars gathered in East Cambridge for a historic convention that could dramatically reshape the way we get our music.
  •   MAIN MAN OF MATTAPAN  |  December 01, 2009
    Ask any group of teens on Blue Hill Ave how many of them rap and you'll get more affirmatives than you would surveying kids at Mass and Boylston for slap-bass skills. Allston might be a crab bucket of indie-rockers, and one in three JP residents is an abstract painter, but MCs in Boston's black communities have more competition than nail salons in Dudley Square.
  •   FASHAWN | BOY MEETS WORLD  |  December 02, 2009
    Since Boy Meets World dropped into my radar a month ago, I’ve discovered how much magic stretches clean across the tracklist, and I was planning to include it on my year-end list. Yet more immediate praise is due.
  •   IBEW PRESSURES STOP & SHOP  |  November 24, 2009
    Folks driving past suburban Stop & Shop locations this week might wonder why laborers are suddenly concerned about food safety.
  •   TALE OF THE TAPES  |  November 25, 2009
    Soon after music-minded UMass-Boston management professor Pacey Foster signed on to write a Boston chapter for the most comprehensive hip-hop tome ever compiled, his mission brought him to rural Maine, where it has long been speculated that the Hub rhyme scene's Holy Grail is safely stored.

 See all articles by: CHRIS FARAONE

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group