The U.N
Un Or U Out

The U.N debut is a bomb. 

I can't think of another phrase to start reviewing an album that in my opinion should be classified among the most underrated in rap history. Roc Marciano, Dino Brave, Mic Raw, and Laku hail from Long Island, NY.

The first time I heard them was on Pete Rock's "Petestrumental" from 2001, where they appeared on two tracks, and what immediately stood out from the first listen was that they were so damn Rap: precise rhymes, never trivial and above all an amazing flow. Three years pass, and in 2004 comes "Un Or U Out", which doesn't disappoint my expectations in the slightest, but rather confirms all my beliefs about our 4 heroes.

A masterpiece that only New York's underground could produce, an album that effortlessly catapults us back to the magnificent '90s, deeply inspired by them to explode in a new millennium where, alas, gems of this caliber are heard less and less. Dark atmospheres, bass pumped as they should be, razor-sharp rhymes, and incredibly gritty beats, no friendly choruses or winks to the mainstream. Here, there's no joking around, a simple yet winning recipe, no experimentation for its own sake, an album that if it had been released in the mid-'90s wouldn't have looked out of place among classics like "The Infamous" by Mobb Deep or "Dah Shinin'" by Smif-N-Wessun, just to name two.

Moving on to the tracks, what surprised me the most was the compactness between one track and another, all meticulously curated to make the mixture more explosive than ever. Apart from "Mind Blowin" and "Get yo ******", not to be discarded but still inferior to the rest of the work, the album is a continual crescendo of gems that delight our system with every listen.

Tracks like "Avenue" produced by the great Pete Rock, who produces two other incredible tracks: "Aint No Thang" and "Game Of Death", God bless this man! "D.O.A (Dead On Arrival)", "The Art" (in which Laku and Mic Raw exchange the mic over a stellar beat for a minute and a half of endless punches), or yet "What They Want" with Large Professor who, in my opinion, takes the prize for the best production, only serve to increase the love and passion for a genre that continues to give me unique emotions even after years.

So at this point, all I can do is strongly recommend listening to this little gem that I'm sure will not disappoint any lover of true Hip Hop, the kind driven by passion and not dictated by dirty commercial moves...!

RATING: 4.5