Amazon.com
Few groups have kept the Parliament-Funkadelic legacy alive in hip-hop more than Digital Underground. Their greasy-spoon beats are saturated in P-Funk-style rhythms, and they aspire to a P-Funk tradition that celebrates life, blackness, and a prophetic vision for a utopian future. Only their second album in five years (after releasing three from 1990 to 1993),
Who Got the Gravy? brings on everything from deliciously nasty dance jams like "Wind Me Up" to a bugged-out duel between Humpty Hump and the legendary Biz Markie on "The Odd Couple." Big Pun and KRS-One also pop in to cameo, but the album's best guest is Oakland's up-and-coming MC Mystik; she helps turn "April Showers" into a seductive but groovy love song supreme.
--Oliver Wang
Review
These Bay Area groove freaks, more commonly called Digital Underground, are making like it's 1988 all over again with their new album Who Got the Gravy? On party pumpers like ''Wind Me Up,'' leader Shock-G (a.k.a. Humpty Hump) relentlessly works the chasm between slamming Cali hip-hop and George Clinton-style jammy jams. Meanwhile, cameos from KRS-One, Biz Markie, and Big Punisher display an East Coast-West Coast unity that's more block party than political summit. While some beats creak, the end result makes for 1998's most joyous rap album. --EW.com