Artist: J. PeriodTitle: G.O.O.D. Music: The Class of ’06 (Mixtape)Rating: 4 StarsReviewed by: Sidik Fofana
Kanye West is a good rapper. Whether you recognized this when he was splitting a bucket with his girlfriend at KFC or after he went to Jacob the Jeweler with his advance, the realization is delayed but intense. So if you’re Mark Ecko and you want to put out a mixtape to promote Complex Magazine, make Kanye West your host, team him up with rising star DJ J. Period and the decision to put this team together on the G.O.O.D.Music: The Class of ’06 Mixtape is one less thing you can call complex.
35 tracks long and over ten artists wide, the mixtape features members from Kanye’s
G.O.O.D. Music label, drops by Kanye and fellow Illinois mates, and expert mixing by one of the game’s fastest growing scratch artists. A lot of the tracks on the mixtape are familiar singles like “Drive Slow” with Paul Wall, Common’s “Testify”, and “Spaceship””off of Kanye’s multi-platinum The College Dropout, but there are also many exclusive joints. Consequence blesses the mix with the laid back “Cut That Out”, the future-R&B ensemble Sa-Ra makes appearances, and there’s even a more soulful remix of Common’s “Corners” to tickle some fancies.
J. Period is a good DJ. He is indirectly responsible for the resurgence of Lauryn Hill via his comprehensive underground mixtape of L-Boogie’s gems. J is known for obtaining those exclusive tracks that the general public didn’t know were floating around. In the Complex mixtape, he definitely does his sleuth work and provides rarely heard gems like “The Good,The Bad, and The Ugly” (Consequence & Kanye) and the playful back and forth cut with Common, Kanye, and Consequence “Wack N#####”. J. Period plays the silent DJ, doing more compiling and mixing than shouting adlibs over each track. He’s not the loudmouth type to sound like a stuttering detective on wax.
Complex is a good magazine. Founded by Mark Ecko, Complex is a Hip-Hop magazine
centered around fashion. What better way to promote a fashion magazine than have the self-proclaimed world’s best dressed label G.O.O.D. music host your mixtape? As a matter of fact, if you just read the first sentence of each paragraph and you could have saved yourself a minute or two.