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Album Review - POUND Magazine #14: September/October 2002 Various - Underground Hip-Hop Volume 1 [urbnet records] as reviewed by Chris Pearce  Most heads nowadays know a love-hate relationship with hip-hop. We love what it was meant to be, what it's been, and what it still might be: we hate what it is. We hate what we see of hip-hop on music TV, we're Sure it's poorly represented by so-called "urban" radio stations, and we know most hip-hop 'zines are more concerned with ad revenues than integrity [Pub. Note: Guilty as charged --- Holla!], Worse yet, we feel responsible. Hip-hop is ours. We liked it the way it was, We didn't think it needed the corporate makeover. But it happened. They stole the body of hip-hop from us; gave her fake [its got her drunk, raped her-all while we watched. What they didn't know, though. is that they didn't have the real her -- they could never have that, Hip-hop hardly exists in the physical. They could get between her legs, but her heart will always be ours. Beneath the surface, deep within our collective spirit, there she's been all along, protected underground by exactly the love that saw her forged. That same love. reverence, and commitment epitomize Urbnet's most recent compilation album, Underground Hip' -Hop. Volume I in the series features a veritable who's who of Canada's finest underground talent, and may very well represent the most exceptional compilation as yet produced by this country. evoking disparate vibes, Underground... aptly demonstrates the diversity and depth of the current qeneration of Canadian hip-hop artists, including emcees [e.g. Brass Munk), deejays [Serious], and producers [Kemo]. From D-Sisive's "party" joint, 'Who Wanna Go, to 0-Shade's hauntingly transcendent, 'Space and Time: down to 4th Pyramid's acute drawl on 'Hold Me Back'. Volume I is consistently eclectic. yet at all points moving. The first installment of Underground Hip Hop is encouraging evidence that-if you took in the right places -- hip-hop is now as much ours, as much what we want it to be, as ever it was. <11OZ. OF MORE VOLUMES, PLEASE> (Chris Pearce) | ||||||
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