dilated peoples - neighbourhood watch
supposedly the dip peps are the perfect meeting place between the underground elements of hip hop and the commercially acceptable face of the genre. i guess this means that they incorporate deft sampling and dj scratch skills (only natural with dj babu in the ranks - hear his duck season mixtapes for the real deal on his scratch skills) along with state of the art production techniques, positive attitude and wordplay next to high profile guest appearances. and on several of the tracks on this third album the combination works really well. but after repeated listenings i found several aspects that didn't sit too well. there are a few tracks where the gang try and act like they are mean and tuff (go on i will use the word gangsta ..) and this is at odds with the promotional interviews i have read. putting that to one side for the time being lets give a rundown on the album. the vocal wordplay is clear and tight, babu's beats are funky, the sound is indeed fresh and vibrant .. even the minimal looped beats and handclap hook on album opener 'marathon' jump out of the speakers. the styles are all over the place, there's the ice-t ever so threatening groove of 'caffeine', the public enemy noisescape of 'who's who' with its scratched siren style, the radio friendly hip pop hit of 'this way', and 'love and war', and the neptunes rip of clipped beats of poisonous all of which are done well and would sound good on the radio amongst the usual pop fodder, and while it doesn't become annoying or boring there are times that the album lacks a certain edge that hip hop needs and so i found my attention drifting more and more with each listen. so, not a bad album, and far more pleasurable than most radio sanctioned hip hop .. but still give me babu's duck season vol 1 any day ..