Throughout the 90’s Hip-Hop heads were treated to the music of a largely Bronx bred collective of emcees and producers named D.I.T.C.. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that they are one of the genre’s all-time greatest group’s with a bevy of talent that came to be synonymous with the golden age and the NYC sound as a whole. Today, we examine he new LP from two of the legendary crew’s generals that just might be a Shangra La like retreat from your everyday heap of average MC’s and wack production.
Now as we all know the bigger the clan, the harder to keep things together. Time has definitely shown some struggles to the Diggin In The Crates Crew as some of that shining luster from albums like ‘Runaway Slave’, ‘D.I.T.C. (Worldwide)’, ‘Stunts, Blunts And Hip-Hop’ ‘, ‘Word… Life’, ”Lifestylez Ov Da poor And Dangerous’ and ‘Funky Technician‘ begins to wear off and give way to more muted offerings. In fact many of us longtime fans and followers of the Diggin’ crew were beginning to wonder just when we’d get something halfway decent to bump on the regular from them…
First and foremost lets cut the fellas a small break. The death of their best friend and perennial all-world lyricist Big L, The absence of Fat Joe to pursue a (pop) solo career and the recent death of affiliate member Party Arty all has had a profound effect on these bruthas, yet like always they’ve pushed forward and put out music. It just seemed like the music they did release suffered from some serious stagnation and procrastination. Something like apathy had crept into the crew and we started witnessing less and less memorable material from them.
Enter in two of D.I.T.C.’s longest and most consistently burning stars O.C. & A.G. Having always had pretty good chemistry it seemed like a no brainer to get together and do an album. Finally the men have been able to put their longtime ambition, ‘Oasis’, out and while it comes nowhere near the indisputable classic status of most of Diggin’s early catalog it’s a far cry from being just a slouch too…
From top to bottom you receive a cohesive album that only saw five producers puttin’ in work on it. While some of the D.I.T.C. record flippin royalty like Showbiz and Lord Finesse are on board, it’s newcomer E-Blaze that handles the bulk of the production duties and does so admirably. The stripped down feel that ‘Oasis’ contains is the perfect pallet for Omar and Andre The Giant to flex their rhymes over and it shows more so than ever on understated, yet highly bumpable joints like “Boom Bap” and O.C.’s best verse offering “Contagious”.
There is a wealth of natural alignment when Omar and Andre go back and forth throughout this that culminates on records like ‘Two For The Money’, ‘Everyday Life’ and ‘Put It In The Box’. Their trademark smooth demeanor and no nonsense attitude infects every corner of this LP and their timing is still on point after a wide span of time not recording together. Maybe it’s just hearing these two falling so easily back into their rhythm combined with an updated boom bap sound that has me so enamored. Then again it might just be the fact that I didn’t expect them to put out an album this up to snuff. In any case, the “it” factor that albums need to be considered tangible listening forage is present.
O.C. & A.G.’s anecdotal styles power ‘Oasis‘ and flaunts the wealth of ability the two vets still contain. O.C.’s verbal tactics are still veracious and overtly reliable. Hearing him do his thing and prove he’s still got it in a major way was highly impressive. A.G.’s workman like output remained intact as well, he never forced anything on here lyrically as he’s been known to do in the past, instead opting to finesse a new found discipline that made him more listenable in large doses, feeding off of Omar’s energy and complimenting his lead. The two men operated as a team very well and it was apparent in the listening experience.
Despite their technical durability and strong repore as a unit I couldn’t give this album a 100% co-signing. I fell out of love with ‘Think About It’ really quick and ‘Young With Style’ just wasn’t my cup of tea. Still, the all-embracing delivery of the Brooklyn and Bronx emcee’s is resounding. They have topped any other collabo album this year from 90’s artists and maybe just in general have one of the choicest, most ideal Hip-Hop LP’s to drop in a good long minute.
Keeping things 100% authentic is why ‘Oasis‘ is such an aesthetic acomplishment. O.C. & A.G. didn’t jump out of a window on some auto tune ish’, they didn’t use a thousand different producers and they weren’t trying to play into the politics of today by having a bulk of their lyrics reflect a fad or whimsical themes. They got in the studio and created using what they know and they built upon and refurbished an already pretty formidable formula. D.I.T.C. hasn’t had a truly winning effort in a few years, but the minute the master copy of this was duplicated and released for retail consumption that all changed.
-Dominick “BIG D O” Ledezma
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