Clipse

In the trying years spent in record contract limbo, Virginia’s illest hustlers the Clipse kept the streets cooking with a trio of mix-tape precursors to last year’s ground shaking Hell Hath No Fury. After bathing anxious listeners with exclusives from their two-volume We Got It 4 Cheap series, Malice and Pusha T flip the script with this set of remixes and unreleased cuts stripped largely from the first instalment, and the long list of willing remixers and guest MCs spawn a fair share of bright moments. Swiss DJ Dainjah sets things up with a dirty Neptunes-influenced turn at "You’ll See” that plays seamlessly into Pharrell’s beautifully simplistic production work on "Mr. Me Too.” DJ Green Lantern turns the Beastie Boys’ "So What’cha Want” inside out, adding a meandering bass line and chopped electric guitar to the aptly titled "Beastie Boys,” while throwing Missy Elliot some R&B craziness over a retouched "Rapper’s Delight” beat on "Crew Deep.” T-dot representative Kardinal Offishall keeps his name out there with a brief verse on the "Move” remix and Diplo submits the quirkiest cut with "Queen Bitch,” a plodding dirge with an unintelligible vocal loop that sounds like an haunted version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” For their part, the Clipse deliver their encyclopaedic crack hustler rhymes as business as usual, which, when taken in small doses, certainly quenches the thirst. By track 15 of 30, though, the end feels a long way off.