The first time I heard about the Living Legends was in the late 90's I believe. My friend Ian discovered their website and went nuts for them and told all of us. He wasn't wrong. They were guys selling albums out of their trunks at that point I believe. I never owned this album though, probably due to there just being too much from this crew. This was the Vinyl Me Please hip hop album of the month for November though, and I was definitely excited to get to listen when I found out.
I have given this record quite a few spins since I got it and the truth is it's ok. Well, it's better than ok but I am having a hard time working up a ton of passion about it. I think it is because it just feels almost like a greatest hits record. Not in that this is full of hits but in that there is no unifying theory or force to it. Which again, feels like it makes sense. For those who don't know, the Living Legends crew is a collection of as many of as 9 rappers. They all have solo work. They have duos and trios and they are very prolific. The Grouch was always probably my favorite and he has 16 solo albums. He had 10 solo albums but the time this came out, the band's 4th record together. Sunspot Jonz has 12 albums. Eligh has 23. Some of these guys put out more than one album a year. Which I think might be the basic flaw in this record. That's too much. And I don't mean it in a "I am sick of this" sort of too much. Though the number of records out there are probably why this was never on my radar at the time, I only needed so much of them in my life. I mean more that nothing on this record is a true stand out. I perk up for certain verses but it really feels like some guys went into the studios and laid down some verses and didn't even bother to talk in advance. Entire songs seem to have no actual theme or reason, it's just guys laying down unrelated rhymes. The record feels even less unified. All of this probably sounds like I don't like it. The truth is I enjoyed it. But it kept fading into the background. It was a fun album, a pleasant album and I don't mind owning it. But it is not great. And it's not great because it could essentially just be some skilled rappers free styling with better production value than you get in a basement party somewhere. I don't hate it but it could be so much better.











