“Compilation projects are great, in the sense that they provide listeners with a variety of uniquely styled music to enjoy. The “X” factor in creating an outstanding compilation project is ensuring that the listeners experience is smooth; rather than, awkward, and unpleasant; therefore, its important that all the tracks, no matter how uniquely different, mesh together nicely. A Piece Of The Action serves up a roster of underground hip hop all stars such as Jugga The Bully, Moka Only, Sankofa, Xtracts Of Slang, The Butta Babees, Return to Sender, Themselves, Lexicon, Paradigm, and iCON the MicKing. These artists, for the most part, showcase some great hip hop tracks, and definitely mesh well together. DJ Fisher assembled a great compilation of diverse artists, which mesh well together, and ensure fans are delivered into the center of an enjoyable high.”
A Piece Of The Action is Day by Day Entertainments first compilation album, and if we can expect the same quality if future compilations, fans will be appeased, waiting in anticipation. Day by Day Entertainment certainly delivered fans an album that they want, and if they don’t know it yet, they soon will. Leading off the album is Paradigms politically directed cut “Teribithia”, which gives an inclination that fans are in store for some interesting music. “Teribithia” is one of the compilations less appreciated tracks, mainly because it “challenges” the listeners ease to relate, and the beat backing Paradigms excellent lyrics is harder for everyone to appreciate. Following up Paradigms joint, Mic.edu brings fans “Backwards and Halfway”, which is one of the compilations better cuts, and definitely a sight that fans have some freshness in store. Without mentioning all tracks individually, the rest of the album can be summarized with one word, “dips” or “roller-coaster” – take your pick.
The first true highlight on this album, one would think, would be Jugga The Bully’s contribution in Corrupt, which is track four (4). Jugga The Bully certainly delivers head nodding lyrics, and a uniquely fresh beat, but he does not deliver his best material, nor do fans “gasp” in astonishment from a peaked high. Moka Only, delivering “Worth The Wait” at track five (5), serves up a great joint, but again its not mind spelling, nor Moka’s best performance. Do not mistake, Jugga The Bully and Moka Only definitely delivered great tracks fans will enjoy, but neither is the artists best, and neither stand out as the albums true “highlights”. Instead the albums highlights, and mind spelling performances come from Butta Babees, Department of Rec, Xtracts of Slang, Themselves, Tak, and Return to Sender. Return to Senders cut, “Butterflies”, is the best cut on the album hands down, which not only serves the compilation proud, but also Syntax Records who lent the joint to the compilation. All of the above mentioned “highlight” parties contributed outstanding material to the compilation, proving their true talents with some of their best work. Themselves contribute the albums second most notable cut with “Thems My People”. This joint is a great “spirit lifter” fans not only can relate to, but they will feel, and enjoy with ease.
Other strong points to this album include the wide variety of talented artists featured, the clear credit information, the informative cover art ( fans know what they are getting ), albums flow, listen-ability, the full length, 18 track ( all songs ) roster, and the assortment of great hip hop cuts it serves fans.
The pitfalls on this album are few, because overall Day by Day, and the artists did an outstanding job. There is room for improvement on some of the songs, as mentioned previously; however, there is no song that forces the listener to skip. Besides some of the better known artists not coming with their best material, another surprise is Sankofa’s track, “Stock Footage”, which comes close to being the least appreciated tracks on the album, and being deemed as “filler material”. Sankofa is an incredible emcee, but he fails to prove it in this joint. Another minor downfall is that “A Piece Of The Action” features no less than five previously released tracks; however, some of the previously released tracks featured on the album only seen limited distribution on their other projects. One could also argue that this album will reach a wide variety of fans who have never heard of any of these emcee’s, and will enjoy every track, having never heard any of the featured tracks before. Normally, especially in the majors, songs get over played too much, and played out. In the independent music industry featuring previously released tracks isn’t as fresh as featuring exclusives, but 99 percent of the time it doesn’t matter because the previous project either received limited distribution, or your reaching a large market of new fans that have never heard of the artist, let alone the tracks. The only fear in placing previously released cuts on compilations is hard critiques who believe compilations should feature all exclusive cuts.
Return to Sender, and Themselves give fans two very good reasons to tune into this compilation, and there are many more. A Piece Of The Action is competitively one of fans favorite hip hop compilations for the year, as it features a variety of excellent rhymes, and beats. This 18 track, 73 minute, and 33 second compilation is well worth fans attention. Fans will be satisfied with this full length, enjoyable, loop-worthy listen.
Track Listing:
1. Teribithia (Paradigm)
2. Backwards and Halfway (mic.edu)
3. Insight (Pharaoh MC)
4. Corrupt (Jugga the Bully)
5. Worth the Wait (Moka Only)
6. A-List (Emanon)
7. Gonzoe of Stimulation (Dept. of Rec)
8. What About the Music (mck2 & Shorty Raw)
9. Stock Footage (Sankofa)
10. How Does It Feel (Xtracts of Slang)
11. Raw (SLS)
12. What U Do (4 Zone)
13. Toe To Toe (remix) (Butta Babies)
14. Butterflies (Return to Sender)
15. Rhyminphiqxion (Tak of Styles of Beyond)
16. Them’s My Peoples (Themselves)
17. Keep On Movin’ (Lexicon)
18. The End (iCON the Mic King)
