The Vault: Classic Music Reviews Podcast

B. Cox & J. Owe review Redman 's classic third album Muddy Waters . After a successful sophomore album Dare Iz A Darkside and a time when Redman self admitted he was in a dark place and time, the Brick City emcee linked back up with fellow Def Squad member Erick Sermon to close out the ultra competitive year of 1996. Displaying a level of emceeing not seen often by even the top emcees and...

B. Cox reviews Tony! Toni! Tone! 's fourth and final album House of Music . After taking a hiatus after the success of their third album Sons of Soul , the Oakland band reunited to record their final effort. Taking a departure from their previous albums, the group adopted a sound that harkened back to their funk & soul roots of the late 60s and 70s. Working with mostly vintage recording eq...

B. Cox looks back on Ludacris ' sophomore album Word of Mouf as it turns 20. After a commercially successful debut the previous year, the Atlanta emcee burst onto the scene with an equally, if not more impressive follow up. Keeping up with his theme of being braggadocios, witty and comedic at times, he successfully weaved sharp puchlines and hard hitting metaphors into hits for the clubs and s...

B. Cox & J. Owe review Mobb Deep 's third album Hell On Earth . After releasing their sophomore classic, 1995's The Infamous , to critical acclaim and rave reviews, the duo from Queensbridge followed up the next year with an equally strong effort to announce their intention to be in the game for the long haul. While the album lacks the star power of tracks and titles that The Infamous...

The crew reviews Lil' Kim's debut album Hardcore. The highly anticipated debut came on the heels of her being a focal point of Junior M.A.F.I.A's debut the previous year. Unleashing a torrid assault of hardcore lyrics mixed with sexually explicit scenarios and lines that could rival any of her male counterparts, her style helped to open the door for the following generation of female r...

B. Cox & J. Owe look back at the late Tupac Shakur 's (recording under the alias Makaveli ) fifth studio album and his first posthumous album The Don Killuminati-The 7 Day Theory . Released on Death Row Records not even two months after his fatal shooting in Las Vegas which shook up the entertainment industy, the album featured little features other than the Outlawz and R&B singers Dan...

B. Cox & J. Owe review Ice Cube 's classic, but controversial second album Death Certificate . After splitting with NWA and dropping his highly acclaimed debut AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted , Cube followed up with a busy 1991 starting his label, kicking off the careers of fellow West Coast emcees Yo-Yo and Del The Funky Homosapien as well as making his acting debut in the cult classic film B...

The crew take a look back at Wu Tang Clan crew member Ghostface Killah 's debut classic album Ironman . After a four year run of excellence that started with the group's groundshifting debut Enter the 36 Chambers followed up by acclaimed solo releases by various group members, the release by the proclaimed Pretty Tone aka Tony Starks was the final solo release from a group member before th...

It's a bonus episode of 'Cards, Dominoes, Drinks & Smoke'! In this episode, B.Cox and Domo discuss old school southern hip-hop and break it down by Region: SouthEast, Mid-South, and the Gulf Coast aka 3rd Coast. They talk about which acts from each region were their favorites and which region had the most impact on the game today. Visit The Vault Classic Music Reviews Online www.va...

B. Cox reviews A Tribe Called Quest 's seismic second album The Low End Theory as it turns 30. Fresh of their successful debut People's Instinctive Travels And Their Paths of Rhythm , the quartet-turned-trio from Queens sought to make a deeper impact on their sophomore album. Buoyed by the presence of inventive jazz samples, stirring and sense tingling basslines, and the emergence of emcee...

B. Cox reviews The Roots ' third studio album, 1996's Illadelph Halflife . After a respectable success and notoriety from their sophomore offering Do You Want More?!!!???! , the hip-hop band and outfit from Philadelphia found themselves moving a little bit away from their live instrumentation 100 percent output and experimented with samples and drum programming. The sound of a more traditi...

The crew discusses Jay-Z 's sixth studio album, 2001's The Blueprint . The album was released ironically on the same day of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S., leaving it overshadowed by tragedy. After the smoke cleared (literally and figuratively), the album emerged as one of the most revered and acclaimed projects to drop in the new millennium, catapulting the Roc-A-Fel...

In this bonus episode, B. Cox gives us a double feature with a two-part episode as the summer starts to wind down. In the first part, he pays homage to the DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (Will Smith) classic 'Summertime' as it turns 30 years old this summer. In the second part, he runs down his Top 10 Summer Jams of 1996, a summer that 25 years ago, many who were around would not for...

B. Cox welcomes 12Kyle of The 12Kyle Podcast to review OutKast 's sophomore hit album ATLiens . After shaking up and introducing themselves on the hip-hop scene with their classic debut album Southernplayaisticadillacmuzik , Dre and Big Bo i sought to make a project that would solidify their position as major players in the hip-hop scene nationally and internationally. Spurned once again by pr...

The crew discuss the late singer Aaliyah 's classic second album One In A Million . After a successful debut under the guise of R. Kelly (which ended in legal troubles and a separation), the talented young songstress took her success and stardom to the next level by linking up with producer Timbaland and rapper, singer and songwriter Missy Elliot . Backed by futuristic and innovative productio...

B. Cox & J. Owe review West Coast and Hispanic iconic group Cypress Hill 's self-titled debut album Cypress Hill . After undergoing a couple iterations with group members, the trio of B. Real , Sen Dog and DJ Muggs brought their debut album onto the seed over snapped and hard production over rhymes filled with references of life in the streets on the West Coast, dark humor and most of all,...

B. Cox once again welcomes Nathan "The Professor" Rideaux of Food Dope Podcast to review UGK 's third album, the southern classic Ridin' Dirty . After feeling neglected, underutilized and underfunded by their record label Jive, the Texas duo went to work to lay their classic album to prove them and the industry wrong. Over soulful, funky and bass heavy production by Pimp C and N.O....

In a bonus episode of The Guest Lounge , B. Cox sits down with Sumit Sharma & Chris Mitchell of the Breaking Atoms Podcast . Based in the United Kingdom, Sharma and Mitchell have built one of the more intuitive, insightful and entertaining hip-hop podcasts in the industry. He chats with the duo about their journey as hip-hop fans, content creators and their motivation for starting the podcast....

B. Cox reviews A Tribe Called Quest 's fourth studio album Beats, Rhymes & Life . It was Tribe's first album since their classic third album Midnight Marauders and a three year gap between projects. In their return, the group grabbed their first No. 1 album on the charts which went platinum. While promising at first, the album suffered from a noticeable lack of cohesion and disjointedn...

B. Cox reviews Main Source 's classic debut album 1991's Breaking Atoms . It was a wildly creative and sonically pleasing debut combining the exploits of twin brother DJs K-Cut and Sir Scratch along with emcee and soon to be legendary producer Large Professo r. Behind funky and soulful sample based beats teamed up with Large Professor's prolific rhymes, the album tackled issues such fa...

B. Cox & Domo review Philly neo soul singer and Soulquarian member Bilal and his debut studio album 1st Born Second . After spending the latter part of the previous decade collaborating with various artists and linking up with his soon-to-be Soulqaurian counterparts, his debut album was a sprawling journey of funk, soul, jazz and hip-hop, an ambitious overtaking only matched by his unique and...

B. Cox welcomes special guest 12Kyle of the 12Kyle Podcast to review De La Soul 's seemingly prophetic fourth album Stakes Is High . It was their first album without the production prowess of Prince Paul, who helmed their first three projects. Faced both with the uncertainty of their recording career after a lukewarm public perception to their third album, Buhloone Mindstate , and with ever ch...

B. Cox & J. Owe review Nas ' second studio album It Was Written . It was his highly anticipated follow to his classic debut Illmatic . Upon release, the reviews were mostly mixed as most noticed the album had a more commercial feel and mixed with Mafioso and mob themes, and produced largely by the Trackmasters, which were seen by some as a departure from his debut. Despite some criticism,...

B. Cox and J. Owe discuss Jay -Z's now-classic debut Reasonable Doubt as it turns 25. The album released on his, Dame Dash and Kareem "Biggs" Burke label Roc-A-Fella Records, was the first building block on what would become a dynasty in the hip-hop industry. While initially hailed as a solid to dope project upon its release, the project's acclaim only grew as his standing as one o...

B. Cox & J. Owe look back at Heltah Skeltah 's debut album Nocturnal . It was the first offering by Rock and Ruck (bka the late Sean Price ) and the 3rd album released by the hip-hop collective Boot Camp Clik (BCC) . Following the success and acclaim of Enta Tha Stage and Dah Shinin by their labelmates, the duo cranked out a project narrated by rugged, yet skilled rhymes over dark and haun...