Search - X-Ecutioners :: Built From Scratch

The follow-up to the X-Ecutioners' revolutionary debut is well worth the five-year wait. It's bigger, badder, and even more technically proficient than its predecessor, weighing in at 20 tracks constructed from scratches, skits, beat juggles, flares and fades, cuts, pitch plays, studio trickery, and live drums and guitar (played by the DJs). MC performances come courtesy of M.O.P, Kool G Rap, Large Professor, and Pharoahe Monch, and there are DJ collabs with Premier, Dan the Automator, the Beat Junkies, and Triple Threat, as well as an unlikely but successful pairing with Mike Shinoda and Mr. Hahn of Linkin Park fame. It's a quality piece of work, with old- and new-school references liberally scattered throughout (check the updates of Marley Marl's "Marley Scratch," Whiz Kid's "Play That Beat Mr. DJ," and Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love"). A must. --Paul Sullivan