audio review : Bars Over Bullshit ( album ) … MC Shan

audio review : Bars Over Bullshit ( album ) ... MC Shan

This is supposed to be a new MC Shan album; the long-awaited follow-up to Play It Again; but it’s more like the crude demo version. Even as a mixtape, its artistic blunders and technical flaws would be inexcusable. Songs just cut off. Some are so old, you can hear the scratches from the CDs they were ripped from. Shan still has Bars, so the title rings true, but it sounds like this project was recorded, mixed and mastered by a crackhead.

my rating : 2 of 5

2017

audio review : Play It Again Shan ( album ) … MC Shan

audio review : Play It Again Shan ( album ) ... MC Shan

MC Shan must’ve been on that Rock Stuff when he decided to include on his third solo album a song by M And M. Their “groove”; a chorusless demo; is easily the worst here. The best, which, true to the liner pictures, ends the set on a romantic note, is How I Feel About You; the heartbreak beat of which is quite beguiling. Ain’t It Good To You? Yeah, it is. I also like Ran The Game and Funkin.

Shan, with his sneakily clever rhymes and charismatic vocal inflections, is fun to listen to. It’s when nothing interesting’s happening during the breaks that the album falters. The vocal samples on Time For Us To Defend Ourselves, which protests police brutality, are quite effective, but the Richard Pryor bits on Death Was Quite A Surprise and Music You Can Dance To won’t induce any encores.

my rating : 3 of 5

1990

a DJ Kay Slay rap collaboration : Rolling 110 Deep

2021

a documentary about rap music in New York City : Big Fun In The Big Town

1986