You want history? You gotta go watch the show because the audio companion to the
MTV2 My Block: Chicago
episode includes no liner notes past the song credits. Instead you get a good representation of the flavor of the Chicago scene, which finds room for everyone from the hard-ballin'
Do or Die
to the soulful
Common
. Plus there's
Twista
,
Kanye West
, and
Lupe Fiasco
-- all exploring different territories and making the Chicago sound all that more difficult to define.
the CD doesn't offer a definition, doesn't even come close to trying, but as a mixtape, it's pretty darn good.
"Go"
and
"Overnight Celebrity"
still sound fresh even after
urban
radio overexposed them, and
's two tracks represent the very 2006 heat he's brining.
"Po Pimp"
from
kicks it hard and old-school while
Shawnna
's
"In tha Chi"
is a slick and wicked Windy City anthem. While a
vocal track wouldn't have hurt, more up-and-comers would have made things more interesting, and a history lesson would have filled a void, the under-ambitious
still does the Second City proud thanks to plenty of high-profile highlights. ~ David Jeffries