Vast Aire & Mighty Mi

On the Best Damn Rap Show, Vast Aire’s got a swagger to his style. His reputation in rap comes mostly from his ominous slow cutting edge delivery as one half of the duo Cannibal Ox. On this album, he’s shed his iron galactic armour and is rocking sweats and sneakers. It’s a smooth transition since he’s teamed up with DJ Mighty Mi, known for consistent hard beats throughout the East coast underground and being a sports fanatic. The old school flavour of the break-beat based production is seasoned with original samples, scratches and vocal snippets that come straight out of left field. The sound ranges from rugged and smooth on tracks like "Vintage” and "Buttafly Knife,” to almost too busy, during the scratch interludes, but it never goes overboard. There’s definitely something happening on this album. Vast Aire seems challenged by Mighty Mi’s punchy crisp production, and rises to the occasion. "The Workover” is a chronology of black music from blues to hip-hop, brilliantly narrated by Vast Aire over a loop that Black Sheep used on their classic album. This is a more charismatic Vast Aire than the MC from Cannibal Ox; his battle-esque raps sound like he’s having fun shredding the beats. Mighty Mi has done his job as a producer — he’s brought a new flavour out of his MC. His MCs comes correct with ease and makes The Best Damn Rap Show pretty damn good.