Craig G & Marley Marl - Operation Take Back Hip-Hop (Review)




Longevity and respect are key attributes for anyone aspiring to cement a legendary place in Hip-Hop’s annals. While trends continue to come and go as the culture has become driven more by image than music, there have only been a select few (Masta Ace, Ghostface, arguably Redman etc.) who started in the “golden” era and wound up maintaining artistic relevancy throughout the years. Two decades after making an indelible mark in the game and scoring numerous accolades, Juice Crew veterans Craig G & Marley Marl have set out to drop science once more with the quite self-explanatory Operation Take Back Hip-Hop.

Craig G is to be commended as a Hip-Hop vigilante of sorts with a creative execution that extends further than strictly making music about rapping, addressing various scourges that have plagued the music industry (record labels, the internet, the radio) on “Quality Work” and impressively painting a picture of cultural armageddon with “The Day The Music Died”. Song concepts are a strong suit of this project, as Craig runs down how far he’s come from petty street crime on the autobiographical lead single “Made The Change”, serves a heartfelt love letter to music and the creative process of making it with “Just What I Need” and joins forces with Cormega to launch salvos against the ubiquity of studio thugs on “War Going On”. Good intentions aside, the album heavily falters due to Marley Marl’s stale and uninspired production, with “All Seasons” sounding like a Dr. Dre knockoff and the utter abomination of “Rock Dis”, serving a blow to the legacies of the albums main attractions as well as that of the Blastmaster KRS-One.

Craig G’s heart is in the right place as Operation Take Back Hip-Hop finds him nearly desperate in attempts of fleshing out his personal definition of authenticity. Unfortunately, most of this album’s tracks simply aren’t strong enough for him to carry forth a piece that hits on all cylinders. Long time followers will likely question both Craig’s ear for beats in this day and age and how much longer he will truly matter in the ongoing fight to keep quality music prevalent.

Rating: @@@