Many of the tracks on Breaking Records contain conscious messages, or topics, which predominantly deal with the growing pains that accompanies the growth process of most twenty-something’s; exemplified by “Minimum Wage” featuring the Juggaknots’ Breezly Brewin, where the crew flips the “trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents” mentality, but keeps their hustle legal and “Ballad of Lost Friends” which touches on the dissolution of childhood friendships. 

Though the mix between jazzy beats and neo-conscious rhyming is at times disconcerting, Zavi and Koncept blaze the title track, “Breaking Records” w/ Infamous MC and Kirby Dominant and the effort is further bolstered by guest shots from Pumpkinhead (“Take Cover!”), Breezly Brewin (“Minimum Wage”), Percee-P (“Lung-Collapsing Lyrics II”) and another contribution from Juggaknots’ Slim on “I Stay Busy”.

In short, Breaking Records is an homage to all the heads that grew up on Large Professor, Tribe Called Quest, and De La Soul, and the ones that no matter how much hip-hop has changed, can still be found digging in the crates nearly a decade later.  While the crew’s over-ambitious nature (twenty-plus tracks) generates some unneeded filler, Soul Purpose’s hearts and minds are in the right place.

From countless tapes, reels, and acetates Egon pulled together two volumes of funky songs that were first released on vinyl, and now put out together on a single CD. It comes together to become a cratediggers dream come true. The Album starts off with “Ripped Open By Metal Explosions”, a song from the play Hair that should be recognizable to all Artifacts fans as the song looped for “C’mon Wit ‘Da Git Down”. On another track “Duffer In F (Version 2)” you’ll hear Galt’s Funky Piano style backed by some of the hardest hip-hop sample ready drums you can find, care of the legendary Bernard “Pretty” Purdie.

Galt Shows his ability to turn anything funky with “Cool It with Contac”, a radio spot for the mouthwash company featuring soul singer Melba Moore. Galt’s soundtrack scores bring the most symphonic funk scores prove to be some of the most head bangin’ tracks on the album. Songs like “Rhinoceros Main Theme”, and “Prison Life” are begging for a producer to sample them.

The music on this CD is a testament to a musician’s music that predates rap by decades. This is the type of compilation that makes you want to go out and start getting your fingers dusty at your local used record shop. A few years ago I would of seen this album and passed right by it thinking it would have nothing to interest the backpacker in me. But now I can look at it and see that this record is as hip-hop as it gets. I guess 70 year old piano players can still git down wit ‘da git down.

Strict Flow’s debut, Without Further Ado, fits snuggly between Styles of Beyond and Jurassic 5, but of course with a little more “Steel City” east coast flavor. Mc’s Masai and Siad trade off verses quite nicely throughout giving out a vibe that re-invokes images of Project Blowed.  With there debut, Strict Flow definitely show what they are about (pure hip-hop) and it’s a refreshing change of pace to hear a group that doesn’t rely on a ton of guests, or superstar production from this weeks producers of choice. Without Further Ado is filled with beats from the group’s in house production team of Chad & Eric and beat-wise they rely on bare essentials while eschewing the popularized commercial sounds that emanate from P. Diddy’s studio. Tracks like “4-1″, “Too Much” and “Watchout” best display what these two cats do behind the boards. That isn’t to say that they didn’t get a little help, as both J. Sands and fellow PA beat maestro Chops of Mountain Bros. respectively add a little bit of musical heat on the tracks “Genuine Article” and “PA’s Finest.”

While Without Further Ado shows promise, it’s not without faults.  The relentlessness of their Indy sound does sometimes hit the wall.  And while Strict Flow exhibits the potential to push themselves further, exemplified by “Russian Roulette” where they deliver a nice message about safe sex, they too often rely on the braggadocios rhymes featured throughout the rest of their debut.

Bringing back the underground has been an anthem for many former backpackers. Hopefully groups like Strict Flow can egg this back and take Hip-hop back to the good old days of five years ago. If anything, Without Further Ado can be used as a conduit, just slip in the disc, and let them take you back to the days of strolling down the street with your walkman and oversized headphones.

The one constant these Philly natives have continued with is the bringing of what I like to call “the backpack sound”—again it’s just presented in a more maturated setting. Tracks like the blaze lead-single, “Microphone Phenomenal,” (and the even more robust Styles of Beyond  remix) best display what I’m describing, as Chops horn blast sample, and heavily scratched chorus leave a lasting impression. “The Roli Rho Show” is another one of those tracks that reminds me of the hunger we used to hear from underground cats a few years back. While the skits become tiresome (ranging from Monster truck ads and Slim Jim commercials) the humorous “wrestling” skits might get a chuckle or two out of the former backpackers out there.

On top of what you would expect to hear from the trio the branching out of their sound is evident on cuts like “Hostile Takeover” as their mixture of braggadocios rhymes, over a smoothed out organ and guitar track sounds like it should be bumping out of a jeep cruising a city strip at 5 miles an hour. Unfortunately, lyrically the group lacks the same maturation, leaving you with a lot of word play that could be found on any number of Indy 12.”

The Mountain Brothers deliver a semisweet comeback effort.  But with 20 tracks, including skits’ they may have overdone it.

Taken from the 1993 Clear Blue Skies EP they recorded for Bobbito, the now refurbished Clear Blue Skies (or Re:Release) includes those original selections, but with ten or eleven new tracks that were recorded, but never released from those original sessions.  So, while the material is new, its not entirely brand new, as the flow and vibe of the LP makes almost immediately known (this is some classic old-school shit that knocks from start to finish). While the Juggaknots trio of Breezly Brewin, Heroine, and Producer Buddy Slim come with a style that you can’t quite put a finger on, but it sure sounds good. The laid back delivery on songs like on “Who Makes It Hot” makes you wish you were out in the park on a summer day after playing some b-ball. From the jump off of this album you know you are in for a treat. The instantly recognizable John Coltrane piano sample on “Trouble Man” sets a tone that screams classic. Almost like a one-two combination, the next track “Jivetalk” rocks with an amazing beat that consists of water trickling, instrumentation and Breezly Brewin repeating the nonsense words “Blahzee blah blah”, a strange mix that needs to be heard to be understood.

Beyond the loops and beats placed down on this record, it’s the vocals that get the job done right. Breezy’s vocal tone comes in clear on all songs; never getting muddled over any production. His incredibly distinct voice handles every track just about perfectly and Heroines near-similar accent compliments her male counterpart well on tracks like “Who Makes it Hot”, but the shining example of how a voice, a track, and subject matter work off each other in perfection comes on the title track “Clear Blue Skies”, a debate between a white father & son about the inter-racial love interest of the young man.

In all my music listening very rarely do I get to hear an album that makes me want to go call my friends up and play it for them; very rarely does a group interest me so much that I feel compelled to conduct a search for their entire catalogue. This group is that rare exception, and this album proves why.  The search may have been long and hard for this album, but the pay off made it well worth the wait.

The best thing about this compilation is that it hits hard. Although the songs don’t necessarily flow into each other they do all follow the same pattern of bringing incredibly hard hitting beats with dynamite lyricism laced on top. The album kicks off with an amazing banger from Tame One, the J-Zone produced “Tame As It Ever Was” with its swirling sounding loop and banging drums it’s bound to make you bob your head. Other highlights on here include cuts like the Weathermen’s “5 Left In The Clip” which just pulsates and practically forces your head to bob, and “Talk Like Sex Pt. II” by the Smut Peddlers, a song that will immediately set you that early 90′s golden age of hip-hop state of mind. The absolute jewel of this comp though has to be Cage’s “Ballad of Worms”, a twisted song in which Cage dedicates his love to a dead woman who happens to be his current flame. Eww. 

This album is the type of record that is destined to be in the car CD deck for months keeping heads bobbing while driving home from your 9-5. There are very few low points on this LP And 1, High & Mighty’s “And 1″ comes with a beat that doesn’t quite hit as hard as most others on this comp, but with Mr. Eon bringing the memories of NBA past its hard to say the song is bad. Not much else could be said about this comps low points it simply follows the formula of putting good hip-hop beats to good hip hop MC’s. More great examples of this are R.A. The Rugged Man’s roughneck themed song “Brawl” and Cage’s “Special Ladies”. Compilations seem to just come and come making most of them easy to forget. Hopefully this one will not be lost in the shuffle and be heralded along other masterpieces like Soundbombing 2. It definitely would be fitting for this Eastern Conference release to sit along side its Rawkus predecessor.

The ARE’s solo project Hustlers Theme however makes you miss the sound of the group rocking together as a whole. Tracks with one or the other members of the group like “The Beatdown” featuring Mic just don’t seem able to hold your attention, and the chemistry between The ARE and his guest rappers just isn’t there. The lack of vibe is evident on the J. Sands collaboration track “The Exchange”. J-Sands voice just doesn’t seem to ride ARE’s beats the same way as it does a J. Rawls track.

However there is some nice moments on here as Count Bass-D’s appearance on the very well chopped, DJ Premier-esque track “Ransom Note”. But the good doesn’t make up for the repetitive instrumental tracks that take up 1/3 of this album. Tracks like “A Plan” and “The Dinner” make you wish he found someone to rhyme over the beats instead of leaving them as is.

The ARE’s solo debut comes across relatively well and should keep those looking to identify samples wanting to give it a couple listens. However overall the album just doesn’t reach the promise you know an artist with this much talent can deliver. Coming in at a little more than 37 minutes “Hustlers Theme” brings a short taste of what K-Otix can bring instrumentally, but lacks the punch you get when the trio together.