Album reviews: PNC, Buckshot & P-Money

Hip-hop stars P-Money and PNC deliver the goods.

Chris Schulz reviews new albums by Kiwi hip-hop heavyweights PNC and P-Money.

Ain't that typical: you wait forever for a new Kiwi hip-hop album, and suddenly two arrive at once. That logjam comes courtesy of PNC and P-Money, last week's TimeOut cover stars and behind the first major New Zealand rap records since David Dallas' Falling Into Place in October. First things first: they're both really, really good.

So it's happy days for local rap fans - but what may come as a surprise is that similar release dates is all The Codes and Backpack Travels have in common. One's a big, bombastic, forward-thinking dance-rap explosion that cements PNC's position as the country's most versatile MC; the other's a loving look back at 90s New York hip-hop that comes with expert production and guest rappers that will thrill hip-hop history fans.

If you try to ignore PNC, you do so at your peril. "Look out - bad man coming through," he bellows with fire on The Codes' opening blast of Dollar Sign, a sure sign this is a completely different rapper than that found on 2012's download-only album, Under the Influence.

This PNC is lean, mean and fighting fit - and on his fifth album he's found perfectly brazen beats to match his booming, authoratative flow. The Codes is a dance-friendly record that comes with the kind of woozy, bass-heavy blueprint that backed Drake's Nothing Was the Same.

It can be a thunderous, overwhelming experience - try the sweeping sonics of Praise, the drum 'n' bass blast of 100 Cups, or the basement grind of the title track for proof that PNC's best when he's being as loud, as brash and as honest as possible.

There are still plenty of stylistic switch-ups across the album's 15 tracks. Those 80s influences PNC loves so much still shine through on the R&B ballad Love Jones, or closer Like a Dream, which is a throwback to the cartoon-style rap he kicked his career off with. But it's his dominating verses over the clattering trap of tracks like One Time, When I Fall Asleep and If It Wasn't for Love that proves PNC's now master of his domain.

Or, as he humbly declares on Praise: "I'm just a Palmy North brother on an onslaught."

"F*** the past" declares Buckshot early on in the famed Brooklyn rapper's collaboration with P-Money. It's an interesting statement of intent from someone still most well known for his efforts on Black Moon's 1993 album Enta Da Stage.

But for P-Money fans, it's music to their ears: the Kiwi producer has stopped dabbling in the poppier production techniques employed on 2010's Everything and 2013's Gratitude, and returned to what he knows best.

So Backpack Travels is a soul sample-laced stunner that fuses beautifully paced kick drums with old school rhyme schemes reminiscent of classic albums of the early 90s, like Nas' Illmatic, Gang Starr's Step In the Arena and A Tribe Called Quest's A Low End Theory.

That P-Money's able to use those influences to make something fresh and interesting shows off his skills as a producer. It also brings out the best in Buckshot, who's rapping with the kind of fire he showed on that Black Moon debut.

"You know I can rhyme," he reminds on the brash shuffle of Alarm, a nod that he knows he's found something special in P-Money. Let's hope this isn't the last time we hear the two pair up, because they're on to a good thing.

BUCKSHOT & P-MONEY
Backpack Travels
Duck Down

Click here to buy Backpack Travels by Buckshot & P-Money.

PNC
The Codes
Independent

Click here to buy The Codes by PNC.

- TimeOut