In 1998, hip hop producer Pete Rock seemed to be finding work harder and harder to come by. A student of the great Marley Marl, he'd made some of the mid-'90s most important hip hop music, yet late '90s rap's move away from musical textures to verbal theatrics meant his star was fading. So Pete rounded up a gaggle of friends and came up with "Soul Survivor", a fabulous album that restated his claims for greatness.
Six years later, and the Rock re-birth has still failed to materialise. So "Soul Survivor 2" is another catch-up exercise, another attempt by Pete to re-ignite a career that's stalled when it should be stellar. Rock's signature sound was to meld chunky, almost chewable lumps of old jazz and soul songs with satisfyingly booming bass drums and snares so crisp they made you involuntarily blink if you were listening with your Walkman turned up too high, and that's the format he sticks to here.
Pete furnishes cousins Rza and Gza with a Wu-Tang ready beat, all ticking hi-hats and swirling string samples. On "Warzone", Dead Prez tackle a fizzing, snarling concoction, Psycho orchestral stabs piercing a Knight Rider theme-like nagging piano motif. 'Just Do It' is a real throwback, Pharoahe Monch rhyming over the complex, chunky, lurching arrangement like it was 1998 all over again. The best track, the laid-back "Appreciate", reunites Pete with partner in rhyme C.L. Smooth, and provides a suitably euphoric closer that points to the next project – the long-awaited Pete and C.L. comeback LP.
"Soul Survivor II" is far from a poor record, and certainly shows Pete still knows how to build a beat, and reinforces his credentials as a producer who really ought to be somewhere closer to hip hop's mainstream than he actually is. But you wonder who it's aimed at. Pete's fans will buy it, but will probably feel that this is less the finished article the original "Soul Survivor" was than a way station on the road to somewhere more substantial. The unconvinced, though, will probably remain that way.
