Project: Funk da World [PA] (CD - 1994)

Producers: Craig Mack, Easy Mo Bee, Rashad Smith, Lenny "Ace" Marrow.

Engineers include: Lenny "Ace" Marrow, Bassy Bob Brockmann, Tony Maserati.

Recorded at Legend Studios & Recording, Long Island, New York; Northshore Sound Works Studio, Brooklyn, New York; The Power Station and The Hit Factory, New York.

Recording information: Hit Factory, New York, NY; Legend Studios & Recording, Long Island, NY; Northern Sound Works Studio, Brooklyn, NY; Power Station.

Photographer: Michael Lavine.

Whatcha goin' to do to set yourself apart from the pack, how are you going to stake out a piece of hip-hop turf that's just about Craig Mack? Part of the answer lies in creating a spare urban soundscape to act as a backdrop for Mack's aural graffiti. Haunting splashes of keyboard colors, lean synth accents and traditional scratch riddims enliven sinewy drum vamps with futuristic electronic chitter chatter.

Mack has a different delivery, almost like a reggae DJ on many tracks. But while his style of rap is new school all the way, the manner in which he treats his verses--in the context of what he's goin' on about--reflects more of an old school sensibility ("Flava In Your Ear").

Mack is defiantly anti-gangsta. No guns, no hos; rap as a means and an end in itself; a throwback to the days when rap functioned as a homegrown party entertainment--bragging on your rhymes, your crew, your neighborhood, in a swelter of homie call and response...a good time had by all, y'all. But when Mack dons his John The Baptist garb on "Judgement Day" and "When God Comes" ("The black family is now pre-historic/And we don't need psychic healing from Dionne Warwick") his banter takes on the urgency of country preaching in his call for a new moral gravity within the community. Thoughtful and entertaining. minimize