- The first single released from the Herbs latest album is this unbelievable piece of black vinyl. I had previously reviewed the album Something Wicked This Way Comes and said that it was pretty good, however this single takes the 2 best tracks from the album, remixes one of them, and serves it up to the listener in a piece of cardboard. Simple concept done well.
Good Girl Gone Bad featuring Wildflower. The introduction to this track remind me of the intro to the Herbalisers last album where you have samples of guys talking about what they think of the person featured in the song. The beats on this track have a reggae-ish feel to them which suits Wildflower's UK/Jamaican accented style well. In fact she does no wrong with her delivery here - the Herbs seem to love doing hip hop tracks with female MC's, and who can blame them when they come out as good this. Definitely a hip hop anthem for 2002, and if the lyrics don't do it for ya just throw on the instrumental which is where the Herbaliser boys seem to excel anyway.
Verbal Anime (Remix) feat Rakaa Iriscience from Dilated Peoples. LA's underground hip hop kings, Dilated Peoples, have always maintained a bit of street cred with their releases and guest appearances as well. This is definitely not the first time that one of the Dilated MC's has appeared on a UK hip hop release with Rakaa appearing on Friction from DJ Vadim's last album. This version, which is only available on single, is a very dark remix of the track you get from the album, with the low end orchestra samples sounding almost cinematic - like a scene from a horror movie. Thing is, it doesn't seem to work as well with Rakaa's vocals compared to the original version as it just feels too heavy whereas Rakaa's delivery works well with the party style hip hop. However it's another instrumental with tight production worth mentioning.