Roc Raida

Recently conferred with the title Grandmaster by prominent hip-hop pioneers, X-ecutioner and former DMC champion Roc Raida rifles through his crates to pull out his favourite hip-hop tracks from the recent past on this release. Holding down the fort on fictional radio station WHAT-FM, Roc Raida doesn't slice things up much, preferring to let his selections push things along, but the selection is more than little curious. Missin Linx's "M.I.A.," which contains a loop that Dr. Dre has since cashed in with his "Tha Next Episode" single, and familiar songs from the Arsonists, Beatnuts and D.I.T.C. need to justify their inclusion. Admittedly, though, material from Big L and Common's classic diss of Ice Cube, "The Bitch In Yoo," (a beef that has long been squashed), are always worth hearing. There are a couple of turntablist instrumentals, but even their presence is outweighed by Roc Raida's need to show his sense of humour, with a brace of middling ghetto fabulous skits and material like the woefully inept freestyle of an MC named Backpack. Despite the good records assembled here, the wayward reasoning of their selection makes Crossfaderz sound like a dated and over-priced mix tape.