Despite the fact that this album isn't going to be claiming the front shelf in your local high street record shop the artists at work here are all fully paid up members of the hip-hop frontline.
Ed himself was responsible for one of the genre's formative releases back in the day. With the Bulldogs ('Black United Leaders Living Directly On Groovin' Sounds' - no, really) he released the '91 album 'Life Of A Kid In The Ghetto', surely the ultimate Beantown classic.
The talent that he has lined-up for this release speaks volumes about the respect that Ed still commands: Pete Rock and DJ Premier contribute beats, Guru, Black Thought and the Hieroglyphics' Tajai and Casual trade verses. Of course, being a fellow Boston-born emcee, Guru could hardly have turned him down.
Already you know that of the 14 tracks on offer at least some of them are going to be neck-snappers. Primo doesn't disappoint, delivering the album's opening track in typically bumping style, cutting and chopping his trademark swift scratches with a chunky piano loop and deep cello strings. By now it's hardly a revelation, but do you hear anyone complaining?
More exciting is 'Too Much' a laid back funky Primo-style cut that reprises the alarm bell motif from his Common joint, '6th Sense', and throws it in amongst some lazy flute funk.
On 'Situations', Pete Rock returns to the sound that made his name, looping a lovely jazz piano sample on dirty beats, he delivers the chorus himself. Black Thought sounds good with programmed drums behind him for a change on 'Nothing Ventured' but Guru is wasted on the fairly standard 'Work For It'. Let's hope that the forthcoming Gang Starr album is a little more special.
Lyrically, Ed's rhymes on the 'The Truth Hurts' are tainted by the fact that he has clearly had a spot of woman trouble of late. As a result he fluffs up the album with a string of fillers littered with the bitter debris of a relationship breakdown, delivering a few very personal blows ("don't take it out on my seed 'cause you resent me"). Someone should have reminded him that the truth is always a pretty subjective business in these situations. Shame, but if you can get past this, there's some fine music here.
