Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
The Main Ingredient

I've just decided that I care about you, so I'll be a bother for a while!

Tenderness. Sometimes even women can be tender; a trait I thought belonged only to me, but... BUT I WAS WRONG, DAMMIT!!! (okay, calm down though)

Life's funny, makes you want to die from laughter: you're just there, hating everything and everyone, insulting everyone, and finding all the ways to self-destruct when someone arrives and does everything to drag you out of the spiral you've gotten yourself into. They tell me that life can be celebrated, that happiness is possible; they know how to be convincing, so much so that I come to believe them. I smile, she does too.

It's nice to see you smile, boy.

Everything was going wrong, but she was there, ready to support me in whatever I did. She was there, ready to heal every wound, ready to reassure me, with patience worthy of a saint. I smile, she does too.

So in the evening, caught by a positive mood, I thought of her. Music that heals, music that makes you feel good.

Maybe you who's reading, just at the mention of the word rap, you vomit your soul; well, in this case, all I can say is RAP RAP RAP RAP RAP RAP!!!!! Vomit everything, bastard, yes, that's right, good! Feeling bad, eh? You deserve it! Instead of jerking off all day, you could open your mind, break every boundary and embrace other musical styles. But what do you do? You jerk off and vomit just at the reading of the word rap! So RAP RAP RAP RAP! You have to vomit everything, disgusting!

Jazz, funk with a few drops of soul, just to sprinkle around; Pete Rock manages to mix it all and create his classic. Sweet, soft, and warm productions; the sensation you get from listening to this magnificent product is like the sun on a warm May afternoon warming your back. As if that's not enough, good old Pete entrusts his wonderful productions to his mate C.l. Smooth, who takes the microphone and shows all his skills. Reassuring voice, enviable flow, divine groove, good use of metrics, and great charisma. A man of great elegance, who manages to smoothly narrate his particular vision of relationships between men and women (platonic and carnal) or even themes concerning the hard life in that mid-90s New York.

An incredible nocturnal journey that takes you straight into a state of calm, of serenity. An album that will never stop surprising you, given its incredible brightness.

I thought of her, and she thought of me too. Maybe not with the same intensity, but she thought of me too. It was only right: she, bold, fought the thousand demons that attacked me during the day, giving me the necessary motivation to stay awake at night, ready to defend her from the ghosts who craved her soul. I feared that a thank you wouldn't be enough, but I had nothing else to say to her. I smile, she does too. My personal messiah....