People Under the Stairs - Fun DMC

YOURZ

I've got a lot of time for this band.  Theirs is the kind of hip hop I've always liked, where you know they've searched high and low for a rare groove they can sample and build a track around.  It's the sort of hip hop I've never had the chance to make, which is probably why I enjoy this so much more.

The other thing I like about this duo is their overwhelming sense of fun.  It is a bling-less, gangster-less world where the groove and the flow are more important than the car they drive or how many girls they have waiting out back.  And given this album's title, there's no doubting their intentions.

Coming together in Los Angeles in 1997 and bonding over a shared love of rare grooves and old school techniques, P.U.T.S have carved out a niche career in a genre full of try-hards and wanna-bes.  Well known around the world for their live performances and their sense of humour, they continue to capitalise and gain fans in an often-fickle market place.

Fun DMC continues their well-trod formula of their previous half dozen releases - fat grooves, distinct flow and lotsa fun.  This is the way hip hop was always meant to be.  It is also the sort of hip hop Mine doesn't get, as you're about to find out.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

Oh, BLECH.  Please please please DO NOT namedrop great funk artists while putting together so-so hip-hop.  You don't even remotely approach Parliament or James Brown, PUTS (oh goody, they sound like Putzes!) so don't mention them.  And what's the deal with all the chat between numbers?  I hate that at live shows and it really doesn't work on an album.

I didn't even care enough about this to look up who these people are and what they're trying to do.  It's low-brow and uninteresting and has the distinction of being the only CD other than Radiohead so far that I actually yelled "SHUT UP" to while it was on. (YourZ sez: if you see a lady in a maroon Seca swearing at her car stereo, avoid at all costs hahahaha...)

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT (the window at high speed)

For more information: http://www.putsonline.co.uk/

In our collection we also have Stepfather