Review Summary: Pete Rock and C.L Smooth deliver a debut album with smart, witty lyricism and such a classic hip-hop sound that can only be identified with one American metropolis: New York City.
Pete Rock and C.L Smooth haven't been on good terms for quite some time, having a fallout in 1994 which led to both doing solo careers. While things didn't turn out all that bad, with Pete producing some legendary hits like Nas' "The World Is Yours" along with an classic instrumental album in "PeteStrumentals", the hip-hop community surely missed them being together. Fortunately for the sake of hip-hop, they're apparently back together and news has been flying that a comeback album is in the future. This is a incredible victory for quality hip-hop fans should this be true, because these guys are considered among the greatest hip-hop producers of all-time, up there with guys like DJ Premier, RZA, Q-Tip and of course the late J Dilla. After their debut EP, "All Souled Out" earned critical success, the hip-hop duo from the Empire State premiered their debut studio album, "Mecca And The Soul Brother" in 1992 and earned even greater acclaim than they previously gotten. They certainly deserve it, as this hip-hop album is one of the greatest albums of its genre to ever be released with its jazzy, street sounds and socially conscious, intellegent lyricism that is pretty prominent throughout the album. This album set the tone for quality 1990's hip-hop and rap and while others have been able to innovate it and make it even better later in the decade, Mecca started that innovation to really begin.
One of the very first albums to start this trend, both Pete and C.L incorporated sampled beats that would be later known as New York jazz rap. Its saxy-occupied, colorful instrumentation and production perfectly captured the essence and vibe of NYC, which during the '90s was drowning in an era of violence and darkness. While that of course has gone away mostly, with the city now experiencing an era of resurgence and boom, these beats still capture the urban atmosphere quite perfectly. It is a sound that could never affiliate to any other city, you cannot imagine playing this music and envision yourself in Los Angeles or in Chicago even jamming to it, you could only find yourself transported to the Big Apple. The legendary "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y)" displays this sound at its finest, with a fantastic sampling of "When She Made Me Promise" from The Beginning Of The End which fades away, until of course the classic saxophone/bass beat drops which has been sampled by numerous artists including most recently by Lupe Fiasco. An ode to a deceased friend of the duo and of his childhood and life in working-class Mount Vernon, T-Roy from Heavy D & The Boyz, the duo's smart lyricism practically speaks for itself in not only this track, but for alot of this album with meaningful lines like "Took me from a boy to a man/cuz' I always had a father when my biological didn't bother". The duo touches on both personal and social issues throughout this 16-piece album, even with a track about love on "Lots of Lovin'". "Anger In The Nation" displays Pete's ability to cut and scratch vocals on a hook, one of the things many fans of him recognize him for as he did on "The World Is Yours" while Smooth raps about getting all blacks to unite together and fight to improve their living, delivering incredible lines like "Television/tell-a-lie vision".
"Mecca And The Soul Brother" hardly has a track that you could just skip, because the masterful production and intelligent lyricism is too impressive and enjoyable to put off. C.L displays his smooth-flowing, witty, and smart lyrics throughout the entire album with a soulful, jazzy flavor laced upon by Pete which is pretty prevalent. Even Rock put himself on the mic in the album, which while you couldn't call him the best on it he does pretty decent overall there. With tracks that goes beyond at least four minutes each, which happens to be all top-notch material, Mecca never stops impressing. "Ghettos Of The Mind" is definitely the most socially-conciscous and profanity-contained track on the album, with C.L's smart lyricism meshing with Pete's beats to deliver again another fantastic overall track. "Can't Front On Me" delivers probably the most dope beat aside from "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y)" in the album, with Pete's trademark horn sample and booming drum and bass sound knocking it out of the ballpark essentially along with yet another good set of verses from Smooth, spitting out lines like "Finally the cops come dumb to the slum/pull out a gun and arrest the wrong one" which many in the city could relate to.
While "Mecca And The Soul Brother" earned its place on numerous lists for best hip-hop albums of all time, sales were pretty slow for it. It is very unfortunate, as this album is certainly a diamond in the rough and deserves more respect within the core hip-hop community. The explosive, rich jazzy sounds that are prevalent throughout the 16-track masterpiece are as iconic as any other heard in hip-hop, identifying itself with only one American city: New York. Pete and C.L truly did something special with this debut album in '92, delivering to the masses a rich, soulful flavor with heavily-sampled jazz, R&B beats with conscious, playful, and sometimes preachy lyricism that people could relate to. Standout tracks like "Ghettos Of The Mind", "Anger In The Nation", "Can't Front On Me", and of course the always classic "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y)" are prime examples of this distinctive sound and lyricism that really haven't been replicated by other artists, and deserves to stay that way. Their really is nothing negative to say about this one, which is why it is so good and deserving to be in the club of iconic hip-hop albums like "Reasonable Doubt", "Illmatic", and even "It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back". An album that is just great to listen to with your friends on a night on the town, this duo from Mount Vernon definitely set the tone for quality hip-hop during the golden era of hip-hop during the '90s and put out music that is still quite relevant today in the current scene of the genre. With only two albums in their name and over two decades of being at odds with each other, Pete Rock and C.L Smooth are back and hopefully their third hip-hop record will be one that stays true to not only to themselves, but to the city they call the Big Apple.
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