Built From Scratch

by The X-Ecutioners

Product Description:

Personnel includes: The X-Ecutioners, Large Professor, Kenny Muhammed, M.O.P., Dan The Automator, Linkin Park, DJ Premier, Pharoahe Monch, Xzibit, Inspectah Deck, Skillz, The Tom Tom Club, Biz Markie, Everlast, The Triple Threat DJ's, Fatman Scoop, Big Pun, Kool G. Rap.

Producers include: Apollo Novicio, Dr. Butcher, Rob Swift, CJ Moore, The Beat Junkies.

This East Coast underground hip-hop crew rises up to the challenge of entering the mainstream on BUILT FROM SCRATCH. One of their many strengths is the fact that they make good use of turntablism, an art abandoned by far too many of their peers. The urgency they gain from this helps push their streetwise but never thuggish rhymes forward with alacrity. Amid the frenetic scratching and hyper-kinetic playground of beats, Roc Raida, Rob Swift and company deliver the kind of self-mythologizing verbiage that's been at the heart of hip-hop since the days of EPMD and LL Cool J. While the X-Ecutioners are careful to lyrically underline their connections to the likes of Nas, and there's a cross-genre guest list on the album that ranges from the Tom Tom Club to Biz Markie, it's the group's own skill at mating unique tracks with powerful raps that makes BUILT FROM SCRATCH a success.