‘The Urban Renewal program is the past, present, and future of urban art, music and expression.’ Those aren’t my words, they are the rather bold statement found in the sleeve of this excellent compilation.
Personally, I find the highly ambitious mission statement attached to this album a little off-putting. A booklet of ‘urban art’ can be found in the case, and I will imagine you will flick through it as quickly and with as little interest as I did.
Let’s get one thing straight, music is music - and the music in Urban Renewal Program is top notch. If any of you have just woken up from a coma lasting three or four years then this album is essential listening for you, as Urban Renewal Program offers a brief resume of where music is at right now.
There are a few hip-hop bangers courtesy of top Boston emcee Mr Lif (probably the most slept on rapper around), west coast veterans Souls of Mischief and the mighty Mos Def.
The new breed of hip-hop also features heavily on this compilation with Def Jux label mates El-P and Aesop Rock offering typically non-linear rhymes over nauseously gritty beats.
The man now making the music DJ Shadow would like to be making, RJD2 (also of Def Jux), provides the incredible True Confessions, while DJ Food, Prefuse-73 and Caural offer their own excellent instrumental takes on what the inner sleeve notes pretentiously describes as ‘the chaotic roar of the city soundscape.’
Ignore the nonsense attached to this album, and just buy it for its sheer quality of music. Urban Renewal Program can be enjoyed by everyone from John o’Groats to Land’s End, not just in the cities that happen to lie in between.
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Reviewed
by Fraser Syme
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