Tony Touch:
Mic Destruction

Release Date: 03 April 2006

Reviewed By: Brendan Scott

1. High In The Clouds - Ol' Dirty Bastard & Black Rob

2. Fly The Knot – Talib Kweli & MF Doom

3. Welcome To Durham - Little Brother & Big Daddy Kane

4. Come Up - AZ

5. On The Record - Big Shug

6. Man Up - Ghostface & Trife/Sun God

7. Honorable - Little Brother

8. Supreme Supreme - Talib Kweli & Mos Def

9. Stand Up - Ol' Dirty Bastard & Capadonna

10. Money Got Lost - MOP

11. Wanna Do - Jay Bezel & Juelz Santana

12. AZ's Chillin - AZ

13. Game - Tragedy & Havoc

14. King Of New York - Capone & Noreaga

15. Truth Rap - Game

16. For My Gangsta - Game

17. Imagine - Skillz

18. And You Say - Consequence & John Legend

19. No Sleep Till Brooklyn - MOP

MObb Deep - Blood Money
Read Review

Tony Touch comes with the mix-CD ‘Mic Destruction’, a serving of tunes that are predominately from the Eastern coast of the good ol’ US of A. This offering sticks to the underground side of affairs; with lesser known artists such as Rampage, to lesser known works from big artists - notably The Game.

What makes this promising is that it’s a welcome break from the saturated artist mixtape circuit that churns out countless releases of a given rapper spitting over other peoples’ beats – usually to lesser effect. ‘Mic Destruction’ is a mixtape in the traditional sense: a mix of records from various artists. What is more, we are not subjected to the now mandatory screaming by the DJ/host about who they’re reppin’, where they’re from etc, etc. Here the self-aggrandising vocal exercises of Tony Toque are kept to a minimum and thankfully don’t ruin the listening experience.

What we have here is a mixed bag that is probably best described as ‘competent’. There are some real gems; the Preemo-produced ‘The Come Up’ by AZ slinks along solemnly with some nice strings, ‘High In The Clouds’ by ODB feat. Black Rob is funky as hell and Little Brother fans will be chuffed to find two tracks that weren’t on last year’s fantastic ‘The Minstrel Show’. There is also a reworking of Grand Puba’s ‘I Like It’, in the form of ‘And You Say’ by Consequence feat. John Legend, which is always going to be good, but only inspires you to pull out your copy of the superior original.

While these tracks and a few others have their own merit, this CD has a handful, and a large hand at that, of weak links. For instance, the Ghostface et al’s ‘Man Up’ has a beat that fits the Champ like a pair of size 6 Wallies and definitely misses the mark. Similarly, the soundscape for ODB and Cappadonna’s ‘Stand Up’ is truly uninspired, while Capone claims to be the ‘King Of New York’ which is a bold claim by someone who has been more or less forgotten in the fast-paced and ever changing climate of Hip Hop.

Potentially, a mixtape can offer a plethora of amazing and exclusive songs, as opposed to an album that is easily limited by a rapper’s artistry, and this is what makes ‘Mic Destruction’ such a disappointment. Perhaps Tony couldn’t gain the licensing rights to some better music, but any number of Dipset records piss on the awful ‘Wanna Do’ by Jay Bezel and Juelz Santana. Also, it’s slightly baffling not to find exciting NY up and comers such as Papoose, Joell Ortiz or JR Writer who have been slogging their hearts out on the mixtape circuit. As said, there are some nice tunes on here but it’s a case of wading through the doldrums of mediocrity to get to them, and perhaps most importantly, you’d be hard pushed to find a solid example of a mic being destroyed.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Top 3 Tracks:
8. Supreme Supreme - Talib Kweli and Mos Def
4. The Come Up - AZ
7. The Honorable - Little Brother

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z