Search - Kmd :: Best of Kmd

Great Compilation...

Ludacris88 | New York | 08/31/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tracklist:



Tracks From Mr. Hood - This part of the album is more upbeat, and has a much more happy feel to it

1. Mr. Hood Meets Onyx/Subroc's Mission

2. Who Me?

3. Trial & Error

4. Hard Wit No Hoe

5. Mr. Hood Gets A Haircut

6. 808 Man

7. Humrush

8. Nitty Gritty (Featuring Brand Nubian)

9. Peachfuzz

10. Preacher Porkchop



Tracks From Black Bastards - The mood of the album totally changes, much more serious and more thought provoking lyrics, but still with a fun feel and great production

11. Garbage Day 3

12. What A Niggy Know?

13. Sweet Premium Wine

14. Smokin' That S**t

15. Contact Blitt

16. Gimme

17. Black Bastards

18. It Sounded Like A Roc

19. Plumskinzz (Oh No I Don't Believe It!)



Unreleased Bonus Tracks

20. Popcorn

21. Nitty Gritty (Remix) Featuring Brand Nubian & Busta Rhymes



This CD was put together in 2004 to re-release a lot of K.M.D.'s material, which nowadays is very very hard to find. It contains some of the best material from their 2 albums, Mr. Hood (1991) & Black Bastards (1994/2001).



K.M.D. was a early 90's rap group comprised of Zevlove X (Now known as MF Doom), his brother, Subroc, and Onyx The Birthstone Kid. Onyx left the group after their first album, and Subroc died while him and Zevlove were recording the second one. Black Bastards, the album that was supposed to be the follow up to their debut, wasn't released because of controversy caused by the albums cover (a Little Black Sambo-like character being lynched, which stood for the death of racial stereotypes but was missunderstood). Eventually it was put out in 2001, 7 years after it was supposed to be released.



This album contains most of K.M.D.'s best material, but some tracks that I feel should have been added that were left out are



The Gas Face (3rd Bass - The Cactus Album)

Mr. Hood At Piocalles Jewelry/Crackpot (Mr. Hood)

Get-U-Now (Black Bastards

All of 'Plumskinzz' in one track, it's not that hard, I did it myself in about 15 minutes (Black Bastards)

What A Niggy Know? (Remix) Featuring MF Grimm (Black Bastards)



And the album could have done without 'Preacher Porkchop'



Top 5 From Mr. Hood Side:

Who Me?

Trial And Error

Humrush

Peachfuzz

Nitty Gritty



Top 5 From Black Bastards Side:

Sweet Premium Wine

Black Bastards

What A Niggy Know?

It Sounded Like A Roc

Garbage Day 3 (Song made up of a dope beat and movie samples, but it's just extremely well done)



Lyrics/Substance/Subject Matter - 9.5/10

Flow/Delivery - 10/10

Production - 10/10

Overall Feel - 10/10



Party Rating - 7/10 - No one will know what you're playing, but most likely they'll like it, and dance to it

Overall Rating - 10/10 - Put together very, very well

Guest Apperances - 8.5/10 - Brand Nubian (Derek/Sadat X, Grand Puba & Lord Jamar) & Busta Rhymes - All 4 of the guests drop nice verses, but they aren't vital to the overall outcome"

Why Make The Rarest Hip Hop Obscure to Find and Preview

Jahmeso | Jamaica | 02/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"KMD...is by far the most notorious hip hop crew for being undefined, yet always on point with the hip hop dopeness. I find it sad that KMD has to be so mysterious and give no public playlist and/or preview site for these extraordinary contributions to hip hop history. Zev Lov X (x evolvez), Subroc (R.I.P.), and Onyx(the birthstone kid) had a formula of crazy skits, hot bangin' beats, and rhymes with more patterns than a fabric store warehouse. This album is pure classic hip hop."

What A Kause In Mass Destruction Could Have Been [4.5 stars]

Chandler | Atlanta (College Park), Georgia | 02/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"MF Doom has been putting out real nice releases since he came back on to the hip hop scene in 1998. One thing he thought he would do was to re-release some of his old work going back to the year 1990, when he was under the name Zev Love X and in a group called Kausing Mass Destruction (or K.M.D.). K.M.D. consists of Zev, his brother DJ Subroc and Onyx (The Birthsone Kid). This Greatest Hits CD, is basically most of the tracks from their 2 CD's Mr. Hood and Black Bastards.



Mr. Hood, which was released in 1991, would have some great tracks that would appear on this album. Some would feature great and humorous skits such as "Mr, Hood Meets Onyx" and "Mr Hood Gets A Haircut". More great cuts on this album are "Subroc's Misson" which features vocals from Subroc himself; "The Nitty Gritty" featuring Brand Nubian, also a nice song (features a sample from Q-Tip); "Humrush" and "Who Me?" are some creative ones that feature dialogs from Seseme Street; and "Peachfuzz" is a great song about women (lead single). "Preacher Porkchop" is kind of weird, because Zev pretends to be preaching in a church under the name Preacher Porkchop, and some how Mr. Hood attends. It had a nice humor type of mood on this part of the CD.



Black Bastards, was supposedly to be released in 1994, faced major setbacks. First Onyx would leave the group after one last recording (later comes back as Rodan who would appear on "M.I.C." and "Doomsday"). Then Subroc would suffer fatal injuries, and die after being hit by a car. Then the cover art and the lyrics on the CD would cause Electra not to release the album (some say it was a pretty dumb idea), but MF Doom would release it independantly in 2000/2001. Now while reading some of the reviews to Black Bastards, I've noticed that a lot of listeners complained about the sound quality to the CD, and it suffers the same problem on the Best Of KMD CD also. What I believed happened is that MF Doom recorded the CD off of the orginal record by holding a mic into the speaker while it was playing. If you listen closely, you can hear the small record scuffs (the sound the record makes when it is playing) on songs like the intro "Garbage Day #3" which is made up real nice movie samples, also you can hear them in the song "What A Niggy Know" if you listen close enough. Now since this was released in 2004, MF Doom should have had enough money to remaster the Black Bastards portion of the CD, but obviously didn't. Listen to how irritating the beginning of Subroc's "Gimmie" sounds. Sounds like a loud tone right? The song "Plumskinzz (Oh No I Don't Believe It)" is kind of odd because it comes in only on Subroc's verse, leaving out Zev Love X's and Onyx's (the last song he recorded with them) verse. On the Black Bastard's CD, it is two songs (this is the last half on the Best Of KMD CD). If you want the full version of it, just find the "Nitty Gritty" 12" single, its a B-side of that. Now despite those who perfer quality over quantity, those tracks I named are good tracks for the "Best Of..." CD. Also "Sweet Premium Wine" is good. The movie samples thats on the hook makes the song unique. "Contact Blitt" (Could be titled Contact Blitz or Contact Blunt) features a funky type of beat through out the song. As you can tell the mood on the CD goes from humorous as serious/hardcore type. Listen to "What A Niggy Know" ( also could be titled "What A Nigga Know") as an example of how serious they act.



The two bonus songs are "Popcorn" and "The Nitty Gritty (Remix)" which features Busta Rhymes and Brand Nubian. Pretty nice songs if you want to include some never released, hard to find B-side songs.



Overall, I was impressed over the fact that this CD was released. Since Mr. Hood and Black Bastards are both out of print, I'll just settle for this one, since it's the best of the two. Also I get to hear MF Doom's work back in the early 90's. Despite some setbacks, everything has worked out with MF Doom and those who worked with him. Rest In Peace Subroc.



Lyrics: A-

Production: B+ (despite the sound quality)

Musical Vibes: A-

Overall: A-





Standout Tracks: Who Me?, The Nitty Gritty , Peachfuzz, What A Niggy Know, Sweet Prenium Wine"