01. The Unlimited 02. Hometown 03. Sweet Potatoes 04. Past Era 05. Instrumental 06. The Bond (feat. Styles Infinite) 07. Water I Tread (feat. M. Beats) 08. Two Months 09. Autograph 10. Time 11. Over Father Scott Unlimited is the unwieldy name of the group put together by producer Scott Kuzner, featuring Washington, D.C. (and D.C.-area) MCs Seez Mics, Napoleon Da Legend and Jesus, all members of different bands in the D.C. underground. The most notable guest MC on the album (ostensibly taking a break between his solo and Triumvirate) is the Mountain Brothers' Styles Infinite. The connection is far from a random one: Scott Kuzner produced Styles' solo album. Considering that Styles probably had his pick of Chops' beats for his album, the choice of producers may be surprising, but when you hear the album, it all makes sense. There's nothing factory-line about the beats: there's love and soul in the tracks and it comes across. The beats are vibey, soul-filled, running from old soul to 60's jazz and bop, but rooted in a love of early 90's hip-hop. The beats set the mood for the album and the mood of the album is pulled straight from the sound of the peak of the Native Tongues-era hip-hop/jazz fusion; the beats are fresh and breezy without coming across as being derivative. The same can be said of the MCs. They share center stage with the beats and trade off verses as smoothly as a WWF tag team. The interplay between the MCs is solid as the three MCs trade off verses between one another with smoothness, not trying to outdo one another, but trying to illuminate one another's points. They almost come across as essayists on the topics that they speak on, whether it's "Hometown" where they talk about D.C., "Sweet Potatoes" where they wax poetic about simpler, more wholesome times ("She'd insist that your neighbor would assist if you needed money / No child was allowed to skip around hungry / Run the streets but once the street lamps went out / If you were under 18 you best to be in the house / There was little homeless cause you could sleep on someone's couch") or their intimate relationship with hip-hop in "The Bond." The MCs don't do a whole lot to distinguish themselves from one another, but in the context of the album, it wouldn't make sense any other way; it sounds like a bunch of friends talking with one another and expoudning on one another's points. The only verse that really stands out from the rest (and not in a bad way) is Napoleon on "Time", and this is only because he demonstrates his multilingual styles as he drops a verse in French. The first time I heard it, I had to double-check to see if MC Solaar or someone from TTC was guesting on the album but otherwise, interplay is the order of the day. It's really a shame that summertime's almost gone because I've finally found an album that rivals my pick of the litter (Kyuss' Welcome to Sky Valley, if you really wanted to know) for plain old sitting out on the front porch with a barbeque blazing and an ice cold lager in hand. That said, this is an even better pick: where Kyuss crystallizes the surreally blazing desert into a crystalline rock vision, Father Scott Unlimited comes across with jazzy beats and MC interplay that breezily blends into the background. Neither producer nor MCs go out of their way to stand out of the crowd. They know that they're laying down solid head-nodding beats and smoothly flowing verses and they don't have to go out of their way to one-up one another to grab your attention. They're here to hang with you and your friends as you shoot the shit about the good old days and they're the perfect accompaniment for that. No one stands out as exceptional or blows everyone else out of the water on this album and while this should be a weakness, it's the album's strength: everything just meshes together effortlessly like it should. It's not obtrusive, it's not jaw-dropping, it's just good music. If this sounds like a backhanded compliment, it's not: it worked for The Low End Theory and it works here. Like sweet potatoes, this is tasty, filling, wholesome music. - jesus x. lovejones