Jazzmatazz – The Mixtape

Jazzmatazz – The Mixtape – The Guru

By Aidan Roberts

It really is refreshing to hear that some people are still flying the flag of the old skool in hip hop, and here in the latest in his highly-regarded Jazzmatazz series, sought-after West Coast grandmaster Guru delivers a ‘mixtape’ of fine and fresh rhymes from many and various indie rappers. Recalling the flavour of the early days of New York beats in full jazz-hop flair, Guru’s def 70’s samples and thrilling breaks are bound together by super-producer Solar, and hosted by the enigmatic DJ Doo-Wop, ‘spittin’ fire on the fresh joints’. All tracks here run at three minutes or less, which on one hand is a little frustrating – sometimes when the going really gets going, we’re already all up on the next joint. But the flip-side to the hard-and-fast approach of mixtapes is that we’re treated to a snappy smorgasbord of talent, highlights here being the jazzy State of Clarity featuring Solar himself, and punchy UK MC Yungun on Too Slick. This shit, in a manner of speech, is ‘fly like jets an’ copters’.

***1/2