Pete Rock- NY's Finest

By: R.M. London

Released: ((2.26.2008))

If you don't know the name Pete Rock by now the rest of your hip hop life is hopeless. With critically acclaimed connections with rapper, CL Smooth, numerous highly touted solo instrumental and compilation albums, and a instant mention whenever "best producers to ever live" come up in a conversation-- Pete Rock has made an everlasting impression within the hip hop community, and is a living legend. Four years after releasing Soul Survivor II, his last compilation effort, Pete plants his new record "NY's Finest" on us and exposes various Big Apple seeds throughout, such as: The Lox, Redman, Little Brother, Raekwon, Papoose, and more. The big question was: Does Pete still have what it takes to rock?

The album begins slow with a disco-drenched drop featuring Jim Jones and Max B entitled "We Roll." Despite the complete bore Jim Jones and Max B are as MCs, they slide through Pete's beat and make it semi-listenable with an addicting hook that carries it all together. Pete himself blasts off the record proper with his solo track, "'Till I Retire," full of bounce and bronx swagger Pete picks off the naysayers with sharp spit and and tells us he is not going to stop rockin' until he retires. Speaking of retiring; someone should mention it to Royal Flush as he completely ruins one of Pete's best beats on the entire album in "Questions."

As the album crawled along there were a few highpoints and low points. Redman ("Best Believe"), Little Brother ("Bring Ya'll Back), and Raekwon and Masta Killa ("The PJ's") being the highpoints and the rest of the album being a lowpoint. On a few tracks it was either Pete missed hitting me hard with his production, or the guest feature completely failed to ride Rock's foundation how they are supposed to. Whatever the case was, NY's Finest's biggest problem was the overall chemistry between producer and rapper.

The LOX, Torae, and Papoose all had decent contributions to the record, but in the end all were forgettable. Unlike Pete's past compilation connections, this one failed to reach any point of sounding cohesive, lacked any memorable tracks that you would play out until the year's end, and also failed to have at least one song that could be called the record's peak.

Coming into it's release as one of the most anticipated albums of 2008 there was little room for NY's finest to come up short. Unfortunately, Pete Rock and crew tossed up a big city brick and missed what was supposed to be an easy layup, much like Pat Ewing's heartbreaking miss back in 1994 Game 7. While there are a few hot tracks on this disc and Pete Rock proves he can still rock the boards-- NY's Finest turns out to be 2008's most underwhelming release thus far.

Favorite Tracks: Best Believe w/ Redman, The PJ's w/Raekwon and Masta Killa
What to do (Buy/Try/Frisbee): Try.
Digits: 6.5 // 10