Hip Hop / R&B Recommendations October 2012

Review: Five years after making his name as a member in Marley Marl's legendary Juice Crew, the battle-scarred Brooklyn underground star returned for his second album with a newly tweaked name and his own supporting crew, Masta Ace Incorporated, a new sound and sharply honed style, and a cynical new outlook on the entire rap game. In fact, a disgusted new outlook might be a more appropriate characterization, as a controlled abhorrence oozes from every pore of "Slaughtahouse", lashing out not only at easy outside targets (Bigoted police, for instance) but also at those shady characters inside the "Slaughtahouse" whose violence is enacted physically (Ace himself places the part of a mugger on "Who U Jackin?") rather than lyrically, bringing the entire community down in the process. A loose concept album, it is at once an intense exposé to the hip hop lifestyle that broke new ground by merging the grimy lyrical sensibility, scalpel-precise technique, and kitchen-sink beats of East C.