Mars Black - Stay Black (CD)

All Music Guide

Introducing his second album for Team Love with "We 'bout to take y'all back," Mars Black sets the stage for a trip back to the old school, when things were much simpler in the land of hiphop. This is Mars in his comfort zone, breaking it down to basics. Sporting a lackadaisical, nonetoowordy flow reminiscent of Too Short, he recalls how things used to be back in his golden years and finds faults in the ways of the currentday game. Simple scratches and horn hits break wind over strippeddown breakbeats as he takes the classic approach, spitting lines like "Now I'm in full effect in the place to be/Black is I and I be he/E cuts the records and I MC/And rock it for y'all quite faithfully" before busting into classic chants like "Yes yes y'all and on and on/Up jumps the boogie to the break of dawn." Since the rhymes have been simplified to a fundamentalist approach, he comes across like a controlled veteran rather than an experimentalist on the hunt. In the best moments, "Hot Chick" sets a... dancefloor mood as a wolfontheprowl club anthem, and "Beat Biters" is a nice update on the minimalism of Boogie Down Productions, complete with computer bleeps, a children's chorus, and some wax tweaking. - Jason Lymangrover, All Music Guide Read more Less