Apollo Brown is something like nowadays’ 9th Wonder of the world: within a very short time, the beatmaker from Detroit has become a dependable go-to-guy in terms of boom and bap. While lately having provided his colleagues from Motor City or rather Mello-Music-Group-Camp with rap-foundations, he has now tempted the most popular guest to his studio-microphone so far: O.C. What came out is »Trophies«, a record of traditional values in the most positive sense, on which D.I.T.C.’s super-lyricist runs at full blast in his advanced years. Brown’s powerful instrumentation proves itself convergent to the New Yorker’s velvety flow, whose lyrics move between self reflection, cool Braggadocio and the daily struggle, while setting poetic exclamation marks here and there. And even though Apollo Brown doesn’t dig very deep into his record boxes and despite O.C. pointing the obligatory veteran-finger here and there, they actually deliver a quality MC-producer-teamplay. After O.C.s recent rather dismal LPs, this is finally a record which doesn’t need to hide in shame behind »Word…Life« and »Jewelz« anymore.
Carmike
Comin’ At Yo Ass
Now-Again