This was an intriguing recent thrift store find; a $1.99 still-sealed double CD release on the Elevation Suite label by hip hop act Shice. A google search yielded very little insight or commentary, with the surprising exception of cover artist Cojo’s blog, ArtSucks.com. Apparently, the Bronx-based MC had received praise from Source Magazine for his “Petrified” b/w “Hip Hop” single before releasing this epic 24-song monster.
The amusing thing is this: it turns out the CD pressing is defective, so the discs play, but crackly distortion occurs throughout, which seemed an ironic turn for an album titled ‘Quality Control’. I was considering eBaying this one after hearing it (there’s gotta be a hungry fan somewhere), but as a bad press, now I kinda have to keep it :)
From what I’ve listened to so far, it’s a competent work all around – Shice has a delivery and tone that, to my ears, is influenced in equal doses by Cannibal Ox and Pharoahe Monch, with lyrics that are still pretty standard fare for this genre. As usual, it’s up to word play and flow to separate this MC from the crowd, and Shice delivers a fairly distinctive handling of the language over tracks by a wide list of producers, such as Domingo, Finesse, Shan Boogie, SPK, R5, The Dead, Rice, Brooklyn Bound, Ric Rude, ITruth, and Prism.
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