Tony Touch aka Tony Toca has been eating off of Hip Hop for some time now. In fact, when cats first heard The Piece Maker they thought Touch was some new school DJ cat, but they could not have been further from the truth. He was banging out beats for like five years prior to that. Well HOT DAMN! In the blink of an eye it’s already four albums later and Tony Touch is beating cats over the head with his Sequence Records release/Landspeed distributed The Last of The Pro Ricans.
On the front cover we find Touch rocking an ill frown as he serves up what appears to be some arroz con pollo y platano. YUMMY! But the appropriateness of this tongue in cheek shout out to his hardworking Puerto Rican ancestry comes to life when we put the CD in the player. Indeed, the set’s first selection is “G’z Up”, featuring Doo Wop. It’s an ok offering that I liked a whole lot more before I listened to the rest of the set. On “Wildlife” I was reminded of just how much I miss Big Pun as he and Fat Joe let go over a scintillating beat. And who the hell said Big Daddy Kane was done? Bring that dude here so I can smack the shit outta him right now! He and Afu Ra bring the pain in the worse way on “Stick Up.” Though I respect Onyx and Havoc, I felt like their lyrics were straight out of the “use these lyrics on somebody elses album” section of their book of rhymes on “Hold Up”. Dope…but ten years ago dope.
“Capicu” is a serious offering that faetures Tony Touch, Noreaga, Fat Joe and Ju Ju of the Beatnuts. It’s interspersed with the sounds of some cats slapping down bones and talking shit in Spanish…straight Uptown style. For my peoples that feel they need another expression to say ‘get high’ then “Prendelo” is what you need. It means “Light It Up” and that’s exactly what the Beatnuts do on this uniquely Span-glish style Hip-Hop offering. Nature brings the serious pain on “What Chu Know,” a selection we’re sure you’ve heard on the radio like last fall. I still like it though. The funked out calypso steel drums are ill. “J.O.S.E.” by Fat Joe and “Introspection” by Cormega are other selections on this set you may have heard before but wouldn’t mind hearing again. Other emcees of merit are Rise and Shine, firing off serious lyrics on “Gotcha Back,” Non Phixion in conjunction with the Beatnuts on “Suicide Bomb,” and the seminal, almighty Gangstarr closes the album out like no Major Leaguer ever could.
All and all, this set has some tasty treats interspersed with some songs we’ve heard before and that fact alone takes away from some of the dopeness.
