A Golden Age Returns: Pete Rock and NY's Finest

Like most hip-hop heads, my first introduction to the iconic rapper and producer Pete Rock was CL Smooth's seminal '92 single (with Rock) "They Reminisce Over You(T.R.O.Y)". At the same time, like the majority of late pre-pubescent dudes of that era, my main concern in those formative years was mastering "Street Fighter II" and "Mortal Kombat" on the Super Nintendo. Nevertheless, I remembered CL Smooth's particular song for its jazzy horns and the effortless way in which hip-hop and jazz were melded together to create something unmistakably smooth, and I filed that sound away in my still unrefined musical subconscious.
Fast forward about four years to the genesis of my transformation to hip-hop aficionado. I purchased the High School High soundtrack on a gut feeling that there were some good tracks on it. After taking the CD home to my room I listened to it up to the seventh track. Immediately, I snapped to attention thinking to myself, "What the hell is this? That's a nice joint." I peep the tracklisting and who does it turn out to be but none other than the soul brother Pete Rock himself teamed up with the Large Professor on a track called "The Rap World". From then on, Pete Rock was filed away in my more discerning musical data bank.

A couple of years later in '98, Pete Rock released Soul Survivor, which is an album I not only played constantly my senior year of high school, but also in my freshman year at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Morehouse is a historically black college and hip-hop heads from all across the country attend this institute of higher learning. Many African Americans have widely different tastes in terms of hip-hop based on whatever region of the country they come from. In my tight knit clique of friends we had dudes from the west coast, the midwest, the mid-atlantic, and the tri-state New York area. And with all our different regional biases, there was one album nobody complained about when we were all kickin' it, Pete Rock's Soul Survivor. That album was the universal consensus when we couldn't agree on what to wild out to before we went out in the southern Chocolate City, Atlanta.

Pete Rock has produced a slew of solid releases since then, but his most recent offering, NY's Finest, is easily his best work to date. A release from his record label notes that Pete Rock pioneered a ground breaking technique known as filtering, "a tool that made Pete Rock's Recordings with former partner CL Smooth so sonically staggering." I'm no new jack, but I was clueless as to exactly what "filtering" was so I hit up a rapper/producer friend of mine, friend of Pete Rock and legend in his own right, J-zone or clarification. J-zone explained it to me like this, "filtering is the process of takin' a sample and 'filtering' out the high frequencies, leaving just the bass line, getting rid of all the music in the sample," J-zone said, "Most of Pete's early shit was like that (especially Mecca and the Soul Brother). Back in the day the sp-1200 had a filter but it wasn't that deep and it was created by putting samples in certain outputs and pulling the plug halfway out the machine (it was called a ring/tip function). That's gonna sound like Chinese if you never used an sp though." J-Zone's explanation may account for the "Snickers Blizzard" thickness of the sounds on Rock's NY's Finest.

NY's Finest is a 15-tracks deep album full of bangers with perfect samples and and boom-bap melodic jazzy joints that refuse to let up from beginning to end. Rock is not pushing the envelope like Kanye West, but he did all his groundbreaking 19 years ago and set a template enabling cats like Kanye West, Just Blaze, and The Alchemist to even exist. All the producers in the game owe Rock a huge debt. NY's Finest is straight up meat-and-potatoes hip-hop, and by meat-and-potatoes I mean filet mignon coupled with a loaded baked potato.

Pete Rock is unbelievably effective at his craft and all the emcees he featured on this album either completely rip the track or sound way nicer than they ever have by virtue of the canvas Rock gives them to shine. For example, Jim Jones is not everyone's cup of tea in terms of technical ability and lyrical content, but on the track "We Roll" one can't help but be impressed Rock brought the best out of him. Another highlight track is "914" featuring Styles P and Sheek Louch of D-Block trading grimy verses over a sick beat. "Ready Fe War" should also raise some eyebrows. Rock flips a dancehall reggae beat and former Fu Schnicken Chip Fu spits some polysyllabic patois heat that will leave heads shaking in admiration for the rhyme style, not to mention the semi-educational and humorous intro to the cut in which Rock breaks down the origins of some Jamaican slanguistics common to reggae and caribbean culture. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all was somehow Rock got 90s legends Lords of the Underground on the track "Best Kept Secret" and those cats prove without a shadow of a doubt they have still got it.

All in all, trying to pick a favorite joint on NY's Finest is like picking your favorite child—impossible. All the songs are well put together and thought out as only a musical craftsman like Pete Rock could do. NY's Finest is a pillar in a time of cheesy, singles-driven hip-hop records, and a potent reminder of the golden age in which Pete Rock was instrumental (pun intended). The album is a reminder of better days without seeming rehashed or stale, familiar and fresh at the same time.

—T. Love

t.love@livingstonweekly.com