Pete Rock Lost & Found : Hip Hop Underground CD - Import

The ace producer, DJ and mixer presents a full program of classics from the archives of rap and hip hop.

Personnel: Pete Rock, INI, Deda (rap vocals).
Recorded at Greene Street Studios, New York, New York.
Recording information: Greene Street Studios, New York, NY.
Photographer: Declan ONeil.
The double CD collection LOST & FOUND brings together two rarely heard full albums Pete Rock produced in the mid 1990s--CENTER OF ATTENTION with his group I.N.I. (featuring MCs Grap Luva, Rob-O, and Meccalicious) and THE ORIGINAL BABY PA, a record featuring an otherwise unknown lyricist called Deda. The I.N.I. project produced a few underground favorites like "Fakin' Jax" and "Microphonist Wanderlust" as well as a choice collaboration with Q-Tip and the Large Professor, while THE ORIGINAL BABY PA features some of the cleanest, street-level production on Pete's resume. Hip-hop purists will wonder why these classic cuts haven't seen the light of day earlier.
Used and abused by major labels during his long career, production paragon Pete Rock began receiving the respect he deserved once he formed a relationship with Rapster/BBE, a British label and one of the few imprints to treat hip-hop as an artistic medium, not a cash cow. Lost and Found is the supreme gesture of respect from Rapster, a two-disc package that comprises two separate albums recorded by Rock after the dissolution of his partnership with rapper C.L. Smooth. (Tellingly, both of these were rejected by his label soon after the sessions finished.) The first, Center of Attention, features a group called InI that Rock formed with his brother Grap Luva, Rob-O, and Marco Polo. The second, The Original Baby Pa, featured a rapper named Deda that Rock hoped to groom and so achieve the artistic and commercial success of his early-'90s records with Smooth. Rock's style of production, a jazzy blend of aqueous keys and reedy samples, is one of the most textured and mellowed-out -- and admired -- of any straight-ahead hip-hop producer. Unfortunately, these two records also illustrate Rock's looming weaknesses. The first is his abnormally bland beats, which simply cruise below the rhymes and effects, sounding as though they were programmed in a hot minute. (Any type of change, however slight, becomes a sudden relief; "How I'm Livin" on the Deda record is a gorgeous downtempo jam.) The second is his seeming inability to record with rappers equal to his talent; C.L. Smooth was very close but not quite there, and the lyricists found here do little more than spin their wheels over Rock's gorgeous productions. The scattered highlights, though, are capable of making hip-hop fans forget the soundalike drum programs; "Step Up" has that Pete Rock sound he made famous on "Straighten It Out," and "To Each His Own" has a lost rhyme from Q-Tip as well as the talents of Large Professor. ~ John Bush

Mojo (Publisher) (11/03, p.129) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Essential..."