Masta Ace & Edo.G: Arts & Entertainment

It’s up to the emcee in regards to how much they want to show their age—for better or for worse. They could show shining moments of maturity or show evident signs of wear-and-tear. For Masta Ace and Edo.G, it’s not so much about the age as it is about the games started stat in their hip hop column. Both have been around for a long time, and while Ace has more-or-less remained consistent and a perennial pick for one of the dopest emcees ever, Edo.G has had a little bit of a tougher road in terms of being stomped on by hip hop executives and thrown to the side by “true-school” hip hop fans. Surging like a bat outta hell, Ace showed a rejuvenated side to him when dropping Disposable Arts, A Long Hot Summer, and EMC’s The Show, with ALHS being a borderline classic. Edo showed some life, and hey, maybe all that his career needed was that classic production courtesy of Pete Rock and Diamond D on My Own Worst Enemy and a Special Teamz link up via Duck Down for the acclaimed Stereotypez. Now that ya’ll are caught up with their story, there’s no reason to deny Ace and Edo’s collaboration, Arts & Entertainment (A&E), since it is a surprisingly solid release featuring some familiar faces lending some necessary helping hands. Although, A&E isn’t without its fair share of unwanted commercials during it’s usually fine flowing and well executed programming.

“A’s and E’s” is laced with a dope uptempo beat (courtesy of Baby Dooks) for Ace and E to juggle back and forth ever so cool and collectively over. Here Ace distances himself as the obvious stronger emcee of the duo, and E certainly sprints to keep up with the light jog pace of the Masta, then again, most emcees find themselves doing this with Juice Crew familia. However, Edo definitely wins on “Ei8ht is Enough,” produced by Canadian producer and recent Red Bull Big Tune beat battle winner Frank Dukes, which is along the same vein as “Do It Now” from A Long Hot Summer. The two emcees spar back and forth (8 bars at a time), but Edo drops some gems like “you could catch two L’s like your name was James Todd,” or “We getting’ off at the same stop? I could understand the ocean by looking at a rain drop.” The track is a 3 minute slaughterhouse. Straight dopeness.

The production on A&E helps tell the stories that Ace and Edo want to convey, and frankly, two stars emerge on this project even more so than the two men on the mic; M-Phazes and DJ Supreme One. Supreme provides a beautiful melodic backdrop on the ode to the loyal listeners, “Fans,” which features Extra P. The track is a sincere, heartfelt letter from Ace and E to their fanbase explaining how grateful and privileged they are to still be rocking. Supreme comes even harder on the oh-so-soulful “Reminds Me,” and Ace matches the harmonic production with equally dope retrospective rhymes: “Ya’ll remind me of sheep/when I play it in my Jeep/ ya’ll put me to sleep like car fumes,” and despite his distaste for certain hip hop acts, he maintains that “hip hop’s not dead, there’s a little hope here.” Phazes hooks them up, big time, including the album’s stand out, “Little Young.” Edo and Ace go back and forth and question all the rappers with Lil’ or Young in their names. And one can’t help but see where Ace is coming from when he says “when you say Young Chris, I’m thinking Criminal Minded.” And “Over There” is another silky smooth production, allowed A&E to once again wax on it as they pleased.

The album contains a few features, most of them welcomed. The Posdnuos feature on “Good Music” is the climax of the joint, where as the KRS-One feature on “Pass the Mic” provides a fierce and hungry verse from the timely veteran. Chester French on the album’s biggest stinker, “Dancing Like A White Girl,” is unnecessary and obviously unneeded and silly. In fact, the last quarter of the album is remarkably slow, due in part to another over-abundance of skits and skippable tracks. “Round and Round” is the typical touring track, but Ace already did this on A Long Hot Summer, in a much more entertaining way, too, if you may. Although E’s radio station shoutouts are welcomed.

The album’s concept, similar to previous Ace albums, is pretty simple and more or less captures a situation and the CD develops as the situation does. Here, a family is watching BET or other TV stations and eating snacks. So, it’s really whack when the listener hits a streak of three or four dope tracks, and then gets interrupted, only to come back on track and get interrupted again by the skits. And for this, this album should be penalized, simply because albums can have skits and be done without being this annoying.

Nevertheless, given the talent these two emcees possess, one can’t help but feel that there was a little bit of a doubt that this album could live up to the names on it. And not to say that these two guys are slouches on the microphone, but their deliverance and persistence throughout the album was remarkable. A&E dug in deep and pulled out some hip hop tricks to slap over the heads of these wacky impersonators who call themselves rappers. Still, obviously Arts & Entertainment is not without particular flaws, especially ones that take away from the enjoyment and general experience of great music. But, there is something comforting, refreshing, and reassuring hearing Ace and Edo rap the way that they are rapping. With such emphasis on the younger, “freshmen class” of cats, the usually consistent and seasoned veterans attack surprisingly, providing that much more of a blast when the lyrics hit.

77/100

Little Young

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Fans

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Ei8ht is Enough

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