RSSPete Rock & CL Smooth [extended]
- All Souled Out [Elektra, 1991]
- Mecca and the Soul Brother [Elektra, 1992]
- The Best of Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth (Good Life) [Elektra/Rhino, 2003] A−
- The Auditorium Vol. 1 [Loma Vista, 2024] A−
See Also:
Consumer Guide Reviews:
All Souled Out [Elektra, 1991]
Mecca and the Soul Brother [Elektra, 1992]
The Best of Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth (Good Life) [Elektra/Rhino, 2003]
I missed these guys--too smooth and insufficiently rock, I guess. That was deaf. In this distillation, Smooth's rapping rivals Rakim's, and Rock is an all-time DJ. Credited samples are few, but the music's pure rhythmic pleasure returns us to those thrilling days of yesteryear before property rights trumped art: as dense with borrowed, distressed, and performed elements as the Bomb Squad's sometimes, only flowing rather than explosive. Smooth recalls a wiser time as well: conscious not self-righteous, ghetto not thug. A−
Common/Pete Rock: The Auditorium Vol. 1 [Loma Vista, 2024]
For well over three decades, the rapper christened Lonnie Rashid Lynn whose rap name evolved from the simultaneously humble and dull Common Sense to the simultaneously simple and grandiose Common has lived up to both claims, and although crediting producer Pete Rock in the slug line would seem a nice show of humility it's also a by now a commonplace—as Common has said himself on Instagram: "A Dream to let the world know I've been here. A dream to be part of Hip Hop. A Dream to MC at a level where De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, KRS One and Ice Cube knew who I was." Musically, he doesn't get there, because that's just not who he is flow-wise. Instead he nails a hip-hop of the everyday, a rare thing just because it sounds so ordinary. Daydreamin' of Gladys nights, he's proud to "use the microphone for a rhyme and a staff," to celebrate "the birth of the Nation of Islam," and at 52 still wants to know why "my endless love always comes to an end." Because he never actually brags on this attempted masterwork, he personifies the common sense he started off by claiming. Just for that you have to respect the guy. A−