You ought to pick this up
Anthony Rupert | Milwaukee, WI | 03/07/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Tony Touch's The Piece Maker WAS an underrated mixtape, as another reviewer said, but what about This Or That? Has anyone even heard of this?A lot of people know Sway as the MTV News anchor, but did you know that he is one of the three masterminds that worked the wheels of steel on this album? Some people may remember seeing the video for "The Anthem" in '99. The song features RZA, Tech N9NE, Xzibit, Pharoahe Monch, Kool G Rap, Chino XL, Jayo Felony, KRS-One, and then-newcomer Eminem. By the way, I think Chino XL could be referred to as the original Eminem, in that he disses everyone for no reason (the only difference is that when Chino disses, nobody cares). The song is solid, although I think Pharoahe's verse sounded just okay compared to everyone else's. Also, I don't know what Jayo Felony's purpose is there (listen to his verse to understand what I mean).The other full-length songs are pretty dope as well. Guru shines as usual on "NY N's", and Eminem's "Get You Mad" is pretty good too. (His later songs were better, but he was just starting out then.) And the guys in Jurassic 5 drop the usual dope stuff on "Improvise".Other great parts on the album include "Reality Check", where Gang Starr relate on beef. Canibus drops dope bars on his two freestyles (since this isn't one of his albums, there's actually dope production to back him up), and the final skit, "Wake Up Show Trivia", is pretty funny.Very few mixtapes are flawless, so there are a few things I have to comment on. "Underground Tactics" (by Heltah Skeltah, Crooked Eye and Planet Asia) is good but it's censored. And Bobby Digital (aka RZA) sounds fine at the beginning of "Belly Of The Beast", but after a while everything goes downhill...REALLY downhill.In the end, DJs Sway, King Tech and Revolution produced a very underappreciated (and maybe unheard-of) album in mid-1999. Maybe this mixtape was underpromoted or something, but at any rate, go pick it up because it's definitely worth hearing."