DJ Spinna – Sonic Smash Review
DJ Spinna has been involved in the Hip-Hop world since its heyday, certainly since you consider he has been using decks since 1984 when he was only 11. He is also worked with some of the greats too; De La Soul, Eminem, Masta Ace and Mos Def just to name a few. His own website sings his praises as so:
It’s true that there are other likeminded DJ/Producers in the world comparable to DJ Spinna, but for the most part, they choose a genre and master it. Ask them to flip another variety with the same intense knowledge and sleek-savvy and you’ll be hard pressed to find someone that’ll do it to Spinna’s extent.
After all this hype I have to ask myself; “Is it justified?”
Certainly so. DJ Spinna has put together a dark, crisp, futuristic sounding album, bringing a sci-fi element to the New York sound which is comparable to Dr. Octagon. The album introduces itself with more hype over a heavy synthesised beat and a tone for the album is launched with a cocky swagger. Still this isn’t just a DJ building upon a well established sound; Spinna adds enough nuisances to this album to make it stand alone. There are plenty of plucky jazz piano samples, also some unusual instruments to separate this album from the pack.
One of the weak parts of the album however is the selection of MCs. The first half of the album has some great underground rappers, most notably Sputnik Brown and Torae. However the other half lacks any sort of creative input from any decent rappers; the verses seem written for other albums and at the worst are dated and clichéd since they talk about Bush, Iraq, and gangsters. Some of these rappers are not big names, and remain underground simply because they aren’t good and for a veteran like DJ Spinna its disappointing that he couldn’t find some better talent to suit the albums tone.
Another aspect of the album where the selection of artists stumbles is the singers. Two R’n’B stars sing at the end of the album, and instead of complementing the futuristic sound it diminishes to a bland half-soul, half-assed level.
In the end I felt that the album was extremely unbalanced, with the division of talent and the lack any real attention on the vocals, the album sits firmly in mediocrity.
Rating: 3/5
