I think this collective are from Detroit but residing in New York (there is certainly some kind of NY/Detroit merger proceeding). Two MC’s & a duo in the beats department if I am not mistaken. It’s really the sonic finish/final product that scintillates here…some phenomenal production, harvested from predominantly Jazz sample source. Ergo hard-to-trace, busy intersections of double bass, vibes & pitched-down horn grafts. This was prior to the corny chorus drenching that would later prostrate it’s flab all over the shop, so “chorus” sections here would instead mostly consist of multiple samples from fellow rappers (or themselves) gauged to the same pitch or speed. Far better, less commercial & replete with ingenuity than what was to follow in later years once the gold-rush had rolled out its gentrification agenda & dumb-down. Both MC’s flow tremendously as well. Their lyrical & conceptual contents can become quite monotonous (perpetual battle rap gasconade) & on occasions ridiculous, but sonically it’s largely pristine. Some of the cuts really kick shit around the room actually, this is high calibre material. It reminds me really of a more hardcore Gangstarr, laden with more expletives & aggression but still with a quasi-mildness or restraint along with a sophistication that generally emanated from the NY wing (not all NY artists obviously). This is definitely not meths-quaffing, sawn-off waiving vagrancy, but a decent at frequently superb slab of Battle-Rap Jazz-ensconced early 90’s Hip-Hip it is indeed. No information on their disintegration/disappearance.

Rekd: 1993

Label: Next Plateau Records