Customer Reviews

Special Herbs 1 & 2

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

MF blessed us with beats that he and his collaborators made over the years that he spit over. Some of the beats are just loops from R&B songs but they are good too. Not going to say too much about a instrumental LP but if you are into production and love to freestyle over underground beats, this is for you.

It's difficult to review a release such as Special Herbs 1 & 2. Whereas most Hip Hop instrumental albums are made to be just that, an instrumental album, the Special Herbs series gives the listener vocal free production from DOOM's back catalogue of Hip Hop Classics.

This would put most people off just a little bit, if it wasn't for the fact that the material DOOM has put out over the years on his solo albums sounds so fresh that to hear the music on it's own is still a worthwhile experience, plus there are a couple of previously unheard tracks on each volume.

I highly recommend this first installment & wouldn't hesitate in recommending all volumes in this series. Or alternatively you could track down the condensed 3CD Box Set.

The Special Herbs collections are essentially instrumental-only tunes of what you have heard from MF DOOM / VIKTOR VAUGHN before and then some extra stuff that did not make it to the final cut and of course tunes that MF DOOM had being working on but had no place outside of an instrumental offering. Hence the name, Special Herbs! I would suggest that you search out a full MF DOOM collection and then get these supplements unless you are looking for instrumental-only hip-hop. If you are, then you have come to the right place.

Special Herbs: The Box Set is Special Herbs vol. 0-9. You get all five double albums for the price of two albums. So it is much better value.

Ah yes, Doom's special recipes. The standard of quality on the entire collection is relatively high. This one happens to be my current favorite because he does mix in several beats that you've already heard (assuming you're an MF Doom fan). I would usually want to hear all different beats, but this is a fantastic compilation of some of his best instrumentals. The mix starts off with the relentless scratching of "Saffron" (Operation Doomsday title cut), then moves on to the jazz inflicted "Arrow Root". "Coriander" is the beat from Doom's cameo on the Monster Island Czars album. "Shallots" boasts an effective dirty guitar sample nicely. "Monosodium Glutamate" ("Rhymes Like Dimes" beat from Operation Doomsday), "All Spice", and "Lovage" are smooth and sexy joints. The tweaked out super villain voices and cuts on "Red #40" remains a strong cut as well. Overall, there's plenty of tasty beats to hold a Doom fanatic over until he drops his next LP.

these are alright but if you already own the original albums such as KMD and opreration doomsday their is really no point in buying this unless you are a completest. These beats are fun to freestyle over if you are into that sort of thing but I enjoy MF Doom much more with vocals.

Coriander and Eucalyptus are the best tracks out of this compilation. The other tracks are ok, but might sound better with vocals. Until HEY is released as a special herb, I'll be very disappointed.

This, The 1st 2 volumes to the special herbs series is just a collection of beats that sound like they're outdated and much of these beats i could never see any rapper rapping to. The only beats that were worthwhile on this cd are ''Shallots'' [The best beat by far on this cd] and ''Saffron''. If you're a dj or an mc looking for good beats to use, Don't get this cd. Judging from how dissapointed i was in this cd, I wonder if the other 4 special herbs cds are any better. I do not reccomend this cd, But if this is your thing, Go head and get it. Peace out, Be blessed.