As a member of the Rawkus seminal 12″ market-explosion (circa ’97-’98), Liquid Fudge (better known to fans as L, yet presented here as El Fudge) a quick witted fireball of an emcee turned more than a few heads with his debut 3-cut slab. With loveable wordplay reminiscent of Kwest The Madd Lad, Fudge proved to be a talent sure to watch. Then he, like Kwest before him, disappeared. A compilation appearance here and a single there floated from crate to crate but a proper follow-up seemed unlikely. But better late than never, from Nottingham, England via Germany back to the States, Fudge returns, now a more seasoned emcee with 14 solid tracks to show for it.

UK producer Joe Buddha mans the board throughout, defining Chronic Irresponsibility with bump-friendly rhythm, nothing terribly monumental, but complementary to the Fudge formula without a doubt. Actually, Buddha cooks up a mostly somber slow rolling beat-to-back. An after nightfall listening experience indeed as tracks like “A Night At Grant’s Tomb” , the lead-single B-side “Beware” and J-Live collabo “Realise” make for sublime cruising music in the twilight. Moments of vigor diversify things well as the frantic “New York Minute” (with Mr. Complex) scream repeated spins while an equal amount of NYC Love is shown on the album’s opener, “New York Olympic Games”.

While contemporaries like J-Live and Mr. Complex might hold the listener’s attention with a little more ease than Fudge, his long overdue debut (word of another release with varying producers is lingering) Chronic Irresponsibility proves solid and enjoyable. While he’s not exactly the same wild-styling emcee of his first single, Fudge still packs a charismatic punch well worth full-length material, and really, how many people can you truly say that about?