Customer Reviews

O.S.T.

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The westcoast underground will always thrive and live in my CD collection because it is traditionally down to earth, humanistic and uplifting hip hop. People Under the Stairs are no exception to the rule. Unless you live in the Bay Area, which I don't, you won't know much about these guys. It was a complete fluke (in an obscure record store while looking for old Gregory Isaacs albums) that I stumbled upon these guys and boy am I thankful. Homeboy was pumping "Montego Slay" at the cash and the rest is history.

I look at People Under the Stairs like Digable Planets meets the Pharcyde. While they lack the lyricism of Digable Planets they nonetheless boast some of the hottest most listenable beats you've never heard of. And the beauty is that, for the lack of a better term, these guys have a completely "old school" approach to the mixing boards. Beatsmith Double K brings it with jazz-heavy samples courtesy of SP1200s and Rolling 500s similarly adopted by true schoolers Pete Rock and Erick Sermon. Put it this way: if you love Madlib you are going to want to have Double K's children. Joints like "Montego Slay", one of my favorite songs of all time, is a island-flavored summer jam that can brighten anyone's day; "Tales of Kidd Drunkadelic" is a hilarious jam laced with an early 1970s game-show sample; "Jappy Jap" is a bass-heavy head bobber; "Outrage" is a cross between a 70s blaxploitation film and an old jazz standard and "Acid Raindrops" not only features Mr. Rogers but also lays down a groove that will bring you that much closer to your earphones.

That being said, while the beats are hot to def the lyrics aren't anything special. Sure, they're pretty funny and laced with a lot of witty references to ladies, microphones and blunts, but if you judge albums exclusively by lyrical content you may not be feeling this. I love an MC who can rhyme like a nut, and I have lost love for an MC if his or her rhymes fall off, but in my opinion the production is so unbelievable up in here that I have no beef with the flow.

In other words you have quintessential backpacking beats. The rhymes are simple but as they're from the same school as Pharcyde and Blackalicious you're going to get really down to earth rhymes about Saturday nights, zig zags and Colt 45s. If you're a beat nut that you MUST buy this album along with all their other albums. These guys, as beatsmiths, are true schoolers in the truest sense of the term. You can forget Fruity Loops, forget Pro Tools: I bet you they don't even own a computer.

When I was out in Maryland doing my computer graphics training, this CD helped pass the time while I was busy doing technically time-consuming projects. From beginning to end, this is a VERY GOOD album. I owe this to a friend of mine who just happened to be playing the vinyl version. I asked him who the group was, and I decided to buy the CD after hearing a good cut or two. Just as you think hip-hop is dead, People Under the Stairs stay focused on true hip-hop flavor for anybody looking for good beats, rhymes and themes.

"Intro" - I love this album's lead into the first song. After I played this album so much, I wound up getting my roommate to say "musical dope". The coolest verse has got to be the "download" story....

"Jappy Jap" - Very nice beat, cool whistle in the background....

"The Suite For Beaver Part I and II" - This has to be the best theme ever on a hip-hop record. Double K and Thes One debate about going to Roscoe's party, and do show up only to party down. You'll be sucked in by the story, the lyrics, the rhythm and Roscoe's tables....

"O.S.T." - A curve for a bit of reggae flavour. It's fine with me, no disrespect...

"Empty Bottles of Water" - Deep in a old school trance, PUtS continue doing their thing. The whispering in the background is different but works....

"Jim Sr." - A little tale of people asking for money...

"The Outrage" - I love this beat. It reminds me of music that would play on "The Flintstones" while Fred Flintstone and Barney are dancing around. The cartoonish rhythm won't have you sitting still...

"The Hang Loose" - Reminiscence of RUN DMC, Rerun and the '70's come to mind...

"The Double K Show" - Limited on overloaded samples, it's got bass, scratching and cool lyrics...

"Tales of Kidd Drunkadelic" - This is a classic old school beat. Double K describes his drunkeness with pizazz, and cool flutes...

"Keepin' It Live" - Hey, how many musicians are faced with conversations about trying to make it in the music world? Thes One breaks it down...

"The Dig" - The start of this song ends up goes a different direction. Hey, good beats all start with digging in them crates...

"The Heat" - I guess this is a skit for humor. Even the rapper sounds a bit flawed...

"Montego Slay" - The 2nd reggae-influenced beat of the album. Cool and relaxed, with the pitter-patter of a cat....

"The L.A. Song" - Tribune to their hood. Home of the bodybags....

"8 Is Enuff" - Full of bass, guitar riffs and drums. Classic material...

"Acid Raindrops" - Ahhh, the laid-back track. The intro to this song has a "Mr. Rodgers" feel to it, but then the song kicks in while Thes One and Double K stay on a positive vibe...

"The Joyride" - Hey, why not one last phat beat? Hints of A Tribe Called Quest and Digable Planets hunt this track. A cool track for joyriding, no doubt....

"The Breakdown" - The ultimate finish. It's back to relaxation. Thes One and Double K "break it down" on different levels.....

With a total of 20 tracks, the music is so good you'll forget how many tracks there are and get lost in the vibes before realizing the album is over. It's a nice alternative to my favorite rap group, Camp Lo. People Under the Stairs, stay doing it the old school way, when everything simple in life could be talked about and music actually meant making music.

And that's the way PUtS makes sense.

As I've come to realize over my years of listening to hip hop (and by hip hop I mean, artists such as: Hieroglyphics,A Tribe called Quest, Gangstarr, Jurassic 5, Dilated Peoples, Pharcyde, living legends, De la soul etc...)that nobody does this art better than the people under the stairs, they have impressed me with every effort (the next step and question in the form of answer) they are not reinventing the hip hop wheel, but simply they are making ish that deserves to be classified as classic hip hop. Thes and KK just bring boom bap drums, funky break beats and loops (original at that, not recycled ish out of dj premiers crate of vinyl, as thes one mentions). the rhyming is complimentary to the beats, its just simple b-boy braggadocio, thats witty and insightful. Dag, i can't prove to you how dope this album is (and for that matter their previous two) you just have to straight buy the ish. ( and don't go out ... and download mp3's, please buy the album, because its independent artists and record labels that feel the brundt of this whole filesharing ish,so support your independent and underground acts!!!!)

I don't often make sweeping statements about music, but this is undoubtedly one the finest albums released this side of the millenium, and absolutely one of the best hip hop albums ever put down. As previous reviews have pointed out, this is not "groundbreaking", "experiemental" hip hop - and that's quite the point. PUTS are very much of the philosophy that if it ain't broke, don't f*** with it. These are two guys who grew up on Hip Hop when that was something to be proud of, and their sound is very much in the style of a lot of early 90's rap. In other words, it's great. With all the sh** coming out from so called hip hop artists these days, most real heads have given up hope. DON'T! Buy this beautifully crafted album, along with the other 3 PUTS albums. The samples are rare and oh so well chosen, the beats are classics (and they always compliment the samples they've been put with), and the rhymes are... just good old fasioned rap. No bullsh** gangsta talk, no pseudo bling-blingin', just two b-boys telling us about their lives in an honest, affectionate and always amusing way. Almost every song on this LP is perfect - literally. Catchy, intelligent and original, but with a classic early 90's flavour that will never die as long as real hip hoppers keep making - and buying music like this. If hip hop has a future, it lies in the hands of these two geniuses.

Thank you People Under the Stairs for giving me faith that real hip-hop music still exists. In a world where the radio is playing garbage like 50 Cent, Lil Jon, Chingy, Petey Pablo, et al this album is a complete breath of fresh air. Great crate-diggin beats, great scratchin, great rhymin. These guys aren't breaking any new ground but they do know what hip hop is supposed to sound like and they do it with style and brains. Keep the real stuff coming.

In the liner notes for O.S.T., People Under the Stairs producer/emcee Thes One provides a well-articulated manifesto where he defines the duo's sound as "just good old hip-hop." He further goes on to say that "somewhere along the way it seems most critics decided that just making hip-hop was not good enough, and praises were hailed upon those who were 'experimental' and 'progressive'... [and] underground hip-hop became a symbol of suburban rebellion across the Internet." This is an interesting point that reflects a growing divide within the independent/underground hip-hop community. Although hip-hop has never been aesthetically homogeneous, the curtain rift between old and new threatens divide the genre into two distinctively different sounds:

The artists associated with Anticon and Warp Records' hip-hop imprint Lex press hip-hop's sound forward at an unrelenting speed that has critics heralding the emergence of a new era. While these artists wage war with their machines in suburban basements, another faction within the hip-hop community is solely dedicated to preserving the culture's heritage and, by extension, the musical fundamentals that it was built upon: deep groove samples, dope breakbeats, and simplistic, on-the-corner emceeing. With O.S.T., their third album, People Under the Stairs have made a musical tribute to these basics. And while it may not break any ground or shift any paradigms, the album is a testament to the enduring strength of straight-up, no-frills hip-hop.

Thes One is so dedicated to vinyl that even his bathroom is decorated with classic soul and jazz albums. His nostalgia for the classics is pervasive throughout this record, and you can smell the 80s scent of linoleum, blunts and vinyl as he brings the rare grooves on song after song. And not only do Thes and Double K, the other member of People Under the Stairs, dig deeper than almost anyone else, they also have a great sense of how to reconstruct their samples to illicit some soul-piercing sounds. On "Empty Bottles of Water", they place a relaxed, rippling key line over an upbeat drum track as Thes One raps, "I travel to the beach where each and every wave sounds like ultimate breaks and beats." On "Acid Raindrops", Thes One appropriates a sample from David Walker's cover of "Lay Lady Lay" while guest MC Camel raps about a day-in-the-life of a So-Cal b-boy.

Although People Under the Stairs flirt with soul, reggae and jazz, the key here is the funk. "The Hang Loose" is an old school, roller-rink jam with a funky disco bassline. Thes and Double affect an old school, Sugar Hill Gang flow and namedrop Dr. J, Kool and the Gang, and "What's Happening"'s Rerun. On "Tales of Kidd Drunkadelic", a loungy keyboard bounces on top of a classic boom-bap drum track as a flute blows beneath the sample. With the seamless ease that Thes and Double K weave their samples together, their life-long obsession with their music is apparent and infectious.

Unfortunately, lyrics aren't the duo's strong suit. The lyrics generally revolve around their obsession with hip-hop culture, their love of alcohol/herb, and the (often uninteresting) minutia of their daily lives. But given the celebratory funk that the music conjures, the relatively light and redundant subject matter isn't much of a liability. After all, this isn't music for wannabe Lyotards twiddling their thumbs and worrying about some linguistic apocalypse; this is music for playing dominos and sipping on 40s. This is for those lazy days wasted on blunts and lounging by the pool. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

-Sam Chennault, September 3rd, 2002

The drum beats and loops in O.S.T. are among the best I've heard. The beats are like P-Funk meets Run DMC with a West Coast touch. Thes-One & Double K's flows compliment every track on the album. They describe it as a soundtrack to their lives (hence the name) and EVERY track here is awesome.
My favorites would have to be Jappy Jap, Tales of Kidd Drunkadelic, The L.A. Song, The Hang Loose, The Breakdown, and Acid Raindrops. I would love to see the L.A. Song be made into a music video. Thes & K giving props to the city that influenced their style would make for a great vid.
Do yourself a favor and blast this CD in your car as soon as you unwrap it.

People Under the Stairs craft a type of music that has been thrown by the wayside of late. They don't work with a DJ because they make their own beats. They don't flow about violence, or anything remotely 'gangsta.' In fact, check out "The Heat" to see how they feel about that type of music. Yet, they don't try to rhyme about the opposite, about peace, love, understanding and unity. They make music you dance to, get drunk to, or hear at a party, and that's about it.

By crafting that type of album, they make an album which is purely and utterly enjoyable because it doesn't try to be anything but enjoyable. It doesn't try and portray a message of any real significance, and while I won't ever ever knock Kweli, sometimes you just want to dance.

This is one of those perfect albums which doesn't have a weak track, though there are certianly standouts. My favs are "Montego Slay," "Acid Raindrops," and the closer "The Breakdown." Those tracks make you just want to nod your head with the beat, and maybe something else in the case of "Acid Raindrops."

I put this album in the upper eschelon of hip-hop albums with Nas' "Illmatic," Kweli's "Reflection Eternal," and The Roots' "Phrenology" as being one of those few albums you put on, and you keep it on, and you're kind of disappointed when it ends.

A friend of mine turned me on to PUTS a few years ago. Had the CD stolen, just picked it up used for five bucks. This is a solid, solid cd. The beats on this cd provide a more live, laid back feeling than most hip hop releases are currently pushing. Thes1 and double k both lay down head bobbing hypnotic feel good flows while keeping the content to a smile inducing true chill. No bang bang (...) on this album, just two guys making ill ill beats and laying some smooth ass flows about their life and LA. Production is top notch, and my ONLY complaint would be thes1 and double k's lack of spectrum on their style. On a first shallow listen, many of the flows sound extremely similar. However, the CD is thorough, the flows on point and the content is excellent. If you don't like this CD, you do not have an open mind. Track 18 baby, track 18.

damn. this is quite possibly the best (west coast) hip-hop album ever, and i've been knee-deep in the scene since freestyle fellowship. Thes One and Double K went all out for this album, and it is just as good if not better then "Question in the form of an answer," which, until this record was released, was the most outstanding output of beats, rhymes, and creativity that the West coast underground scene had heard. Every single track has its own flavor and vibe, from the disco-oriented "the hang loose" to the ode to weed, "acid raindrops." These guys went way back to the days where hip-hop was fun and was all about positivity, unlike the commerical radio (c)rap that floods the airwaves today. This album gives Nelly, Jumaine Dupri, Jay-Z, etc. a swift kick in the groin and reminds the rest of us what hip-hop was and what hip-hop can truly achieve as an artform.