Music

Comments (0) By Jon Caramanica Tuesday, May 11 2004

photo: Ernie Paniccioli

KC Flight and a skinny friend

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DJ Ayres & Cosmo Baker Present: Hip-House
djayres.com

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Four years ago, Fatboy Slim jacked Doug Lazy's voice, and the jolly hip-house icon never caught a check. He who "Let It Roll" doesn't catch a break on this mix CD either, but all of his not-quite-rough-enough-for-Edan's–Fast Rap–tape homies are here: MCs Fast Eddie and KC Flight, producers Strafe and Tyree. "Rap and house is kinda different," Juice Crew non-biscuit Craig G insists in "Turn That House Into a Home." "To do this, you must be gifted." That's not totally true (this was, after all, the era when MCs stated exactly what they were essaying to do in each song. Meta what? Meta who?), but the swinging style isn't for everyone, only the sexy people. Special Ed got down, as did Big Daddy Kane (best are the latter-day quick-spitters who get shoehorned in nicely: Rah Digga, Joe Budden, even Cincy arty-partys Five Deez). And Chi-town house dons Adonis and Steve Hurley prove their urban bona fides, though almost no one in New York's rap world was listening. "I'll House You" aside, this was music flowing mostly from the outside in, assuring regional marginality despite tristate club saturation. For the record, Ayres swears D.C.'s Doug will eat well on the forthcoming Vol. 2.