O.C's debut, 'Word Life', is one of the canonised works of East Coast hip-hop's fertile mid-nineties period, a historical badge worn proudly by any b-boy or b-girl worth the name. But, unlike other releases from the same period turned out by the hugely influential Diggin In The Crates crew, it's too patchy an album to truly deserve its cult status.
There's been one other LP between 'Word Life' and this highly-anticipated return which further cemented the Brooklyn emcee's reputation with productions from DJ Premier and the original cast of knob twiddlers - Da Beatminerz, Showbiz, Lord Finesse and Buckwild. So why deviate from the formula?
Well, for one thing, O.C is fond of referring to himself as a "slept on phenomenon", an underground emcee destined to be tossed from independent label to independent label without ever breaking the big-time, so he's got to be thinking 'breakthrough' when he settles in the studio for an evening's work.
On 'Bon Appetit' producer Buckwild returns along with a fine cut from Lord Finesse and, whilst the majority of production comes from the former, there's a significant shift in style apparent. Buckwild, it would seem, is long past his glory days and, whilst cuts like 'Get It Dirty' recall the elusive atmospherics of his contributions to 'Word Life', others seem little more than thinly veiled shots at hitting a commercial formula.
O.C, for his part, also seems intent on dropping the conscious lyricism that marked him out as a rising star in the mid-nineties and, instead, listing the tokens of 'bling' in a kind of half-hearted bid for middle America's dollars.
There are a couple of winners here (not least the penultimate 'hidden' cut) but, all-told, 'Bon Appetit' doesn't further the legacy of the man who once proudly, and perhaps a little naively, stated: "I'd rather be broke and have a whole lot of respect."
