Rating: NN
No doubt Vancouver DJ and industry insider J-Swing had honourable intentions in compiling this contemporary Canuck hiphop primer. Yet the track selection — including joints by Saukrates and Kardinal Offishall, the Rascalz Red-One and Checkmate, Choclair, Frankenstein and Thrust, Solitair and the Juno-jacking Swollen Members — seems designed to show that Canadian artists can conform to stateside rap conventions. That might make sense if the Longplay was made to impress blinkered urban radio programmers, but the reason why hiphop headz in England, Spain and Holland are queueing up for imported T-dot indie jams is because they don’t sound like everything coming out of New York. Maybe they should’ve had the tracks chosen by a true hiphop fan who doesn’t get his records for free.
