DJ King Flow & DJ PLK - Tasty Beatz Vol 2 (Universal Indie Records)

DJ King Flow and DJ PLK present what seems to be a brave claim - a new instrumental mixtape every 2 weeks until the end of 2010! Well, lets see if that claim is going to be worthwhile. Well the intro track for this first release seems to be, well, a recording of 'A Bronx Tale', the scene with the bikers getting a hiding for spraying their beer about. A good scene, and it sets the scene for a gangland Hip-Hop mixtape. I just hope they have permission from the Universal Studios (or whoever).

Ok so track 2 'You Know You Did' is a classic, late 80's Hip-Hop style track. Laced with funk - in fact the only apparent difference is the looped nature of it all. I'll hand it to these guys, they've got me interested at this point. Very, very fresh. Not too long or overbearing, i'm really rather chilled at this point. I get the feeling that some serious homework has been done by these guys, that 70's flavour that we can usually enjoy from a Nas track is all there. My Funk/Groove knowledge isn't encyclopedic (so I can't say either way) but if this isn't a collection of looped samples then it's an extremely well executed shot at authenticity. Kudos.

Roll on tracks 3 and 4, 'Baby Love' and 'This Is Love' and you can see the same. A punchy kick, a looped Soul vocal and/or bassline, massively compressed drum sequence and we've still got good, solid music. Very basic, quite bare, but seriously good! Hip-Hop runs in these guys veins, I'm wondering if the purpose of these mixtapes is to provide budding MC's to get recording? Or maybe just for DJ's to mix it up? Tasty Beatz seems to be free, and it would explain the brazen use of sampling - so if you're intending of spitting over these tracks yourself, it may well be you that gets the lawsuit. We need to look into this... They're boasting this as an 'Instrumental Album' and it certainly is that.

'I Agree' is pure butter. Yep, butter. Tasty, melting, and I'd happily get a dose of it with anything. Mos Def could do worse than use this, or Rakim, Jurassic 5, Erykah Badu, any of them. Sexy sax on here, in fact I can easily imagine Jazzy Jeff passing this one on to the Fresh Prince. Summer Summer Summertime, we just sit back and unwind. 'Act Like That' could be an instant success with even the least talented singer/MC over it, it carries itself! Again very basic, very dependable, in fact are these guys serious? Are these actually just stolen archive instrumentals from Rawkus Records HQ? I honestly can't believe what I'm hearing.

If indeed I'm hearing entirely sampled music then DJ King Flow and DJ PLK have been crafty, I dont recognise a single riff - and I'm wondering what I've been missing out on from the world of 60/70/80's Blaxploitation. I need to speak to these guys, I'm genuinely intrigued. 'Gangster Music' is a touch of a let down, merely because it's not as catchy as the rest - that's it.

I'm speechless. If I had a bad thing to say then I may have made a more entertaining read - but I dont. With a mission to make 1st class Hip-Hop instrumentals, these guys have done it - and then some. I'm just blown away. I may download this. In fact, yeah, I'm going to download this. 5 stars guys, 5 huge stars!

Download 'Tasty Beatz Vol 2'