Quality Control

Rolling Stone (6/22/00, p.133) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...Breathes new life into old-school hip-hop....taking ill beats mined from the deepest of crates and tweaking them into dirty-funk masterpieces....uncompromisingly intense and hard to resist." Entertainment Weekly (6/23/00, p.102) - "...There is much to love. The 4 MCs are playful and progressive, and the virtuoso DJs quilt vintage funk with surgical scratching and deep-crate sampling..." - Rating: B Q (8/00, p.99) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Pleasant fiction....fashioning sparky new shapes from hip hop's basic ingredients..." Uncut (8/00, p.94) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Draws on De La Soul's back-to-basics beat deconstructions and lateral-thinking word association in artfully dishevelled rambles....Breezy, blunt-smokiing, bohemian hip hop par excellence..." The Wire (6/00, p.49) - "...The record is nice. Upend that frown, spin it on its head and pass the double dutchie on the left-hand side." Mixmag (7/00, p.166) - 4 out of 5 - "...Simple, hands-up, dope beats...and pointed, witty lyricism...that never fails to hit the spot....an album that's sure to appeal to hip hop heads and part-timers alike. Top." CMJ (6/19/00, p.3) - "...A supremely produced modern variation on old school hip-hop...brilliantly balancing the retro purity rooted in post-gangsta rap of the Native Tongues with new school innovation..." The Source (7/00, pp.209-10) - 3.5 mics out of 5 - "...An artful collage of old-school-sounding snare hits, horns, guitar licks and scratches....[it's] an album of rhythms and flows that move with remarkable cohesiveness....an ill album in completely original fashion..." Mojo (Publisher) (7/00, p.98) - "...This is a truly freeflowing masterpiece....the beast are old-skool, party hardy, uptempo horn-stabbing '70s funk variety....Perhaps the time is right for new, ego-free hip hop..." NME (Magazine) (7/1/00, p.45) - 6 out of 10 - "...Fluid interplay and...evolving musicality..."