There was a moment when the HOP music compilation was a thing and extremely effective. An album that would introduce or expose a myriad of rappers to new audiences. Soundtracks were a great example of this, in particular ‘High School High, ‘The Show,’ ‘Rhyme & Reason’ and ‘Soul In The Hole’ were mainly HOP music but had more known acts attached to those albums. When ‘Lyricists Lounge Vol.1’ released it set a strong precedent in providing unknown rappers a space to be heard on a smaller label but larger platform. After that release many compilations were provided and were successful in their own right like the ‘Supperappin’ series, ‘Beats & Lyrics’ by D.J. Kool EQ, D.J. Spinna’s ‘Beyond Real’ compilations and more. Needless to say these albums caused mass stimulus to my brain and I was on the lookout for any compilations adjacent to them at the time. With Rawkus records giving me an introduction to D.J. Hi-Tek by way of Black Star and hearing Lone Catalysts on a couple of mixtapes, I became aware of a “Mid-West” movement that could have easily gone unnoticed outside of the region had it not been for those acts. There was another compilation called ‘Mission Control…’ that highlighted those same acts along with a group Mood that took me down the Ohio path, which lead to me discovering ‘Bringing It Home Volume One.’ This album highlights many of the acts who were connected to Lone Catalysts and their label B.U.K.A. which stood for (Brothers United Keeping It Afficial). An extremely independent label that once again gave space for more unknown acts to be heard. On this album a few names were familiar like Verbal Kent and Usef Dinero but even for an “underground Hip-hop head” at the time these were all new acts. The songs that truly stand out on this album really do like the B.J. Bigby heater ‘Surrender,’ K-Mos ‘High Noon,’ Afaliah Afelyone ‘In/Exhale’ and Usef Dinero’s ‘Misc.’ The problem is a majority of the record has tracks from artist that just don’t stand up to the best offerings here, and with nineteen tracks and album art that is not to enthusiastic it doesn’t create the best replay value. As a collector of the independent Hip-Hop music scene at the time it’s not a bad album to own and displays the street and traditional sounding HOP music of that era. What did you think of the album?
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