About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

Introducing his second album for Team Love with "We 'bout to take y'all back," Mars Black sets the stage for a trip back to the old school, when things were much simpler in the land of hip-hop. This is Mars in his comfort zone, breaking it down to basics. Sporting a lackadaisical, none-too-wordy flow reminiscent of Too Short, he recalls how things used to be back in his golden years and finds faults in the ways of the current-day game. Simple scratches and horn hits break wind over stripped-down breakbeats as he takes the classic approach, spitting lines like "Now I'm in full effect in the place to be/Black is I and I be he/E cuts the records and I MC/And rock it for y'all quite faithfully" before busting into classic chants like "Yes yes y'all and on and on/Up jumps the boogie to the break of dawn." Since the rhymes have been simplified to a fundamentalist approach, he comes across like a controlled veteran rather than an experimentalist on the hunt. In the best moments, "Hot Chick" sets a dancefloor mood as a wolf-on-the-prowl club anthem, and "Beat Biters" is a nice update on the minimalism of Boogie Down Productions, complete with computer bleeps, a children's chorus, and some wax tweaking. Jason Lymangrover, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

• Listener Rating: