Bazooka Tooth (Reissue)

As far as the expectations go, Bazooka Tooth delivers on most of its promise. The beats are dense and the bass-lines dark, like street-level rap is supposed to be, with a jumble of murky samples and angled effects coming from every direction. And Ace Rock's lurching, nasally flow and obscurist rhymes may not carry every lyric across, but do allow listeners to marvel at the few legible lines. With most of the productions coming from Aesop himself (along with Def Jux mainstay Nasa), Bazooka Tooth lacks the catchy, sample-driven flavor of Labor Days, but does set a standard for basement-level beats, with some of the best hashed-and-screwed productions heard on Def Jux since the Cannibal Ox masterpiece The Cold Vein. - All Music