Wading through the whopping 45 tracks that total this companion compilation to the A3C Hip Hop Festival feels like a case of lost opportunity. It’s not that the largely indie-level names are bad; the songs themselves are decent enough, too. It’s that instead of representing the ambitions of A3C, Volume 1 resembles only the sort of sprawling playlist a well-meaning but undiscerning friend has Mediafired your way.
MURS and underrated industry vet Ski Beatz kick things off with the punchy, guitar-strewn “Let’s Go;” soon you’re listening to passable performances from Freddie Gibbs (“Executive Decision”
), the charismatic GLC (“Show You What This Ism”), and a previously released team-up between Smoke DZA, Bun B and Big K.R.I.T. called “On The Corner”. But there’s no theme to the songs or sequencing, and too quick comes the temptation to randomly skip through the long list of songs. While standout tracks like Saigon’s “I Know Now”, 9th Wonder’s battlecry “Jamla’s Coming At You” and Action Bronson’s “Muslim Wedding” offer glimmers of hope, they get lost in the sauce with the reaching-50 tracklisting.
This year’s A3C Festival included seminars titled “Where’s My Check? The 401k Plan For The Industry” and “No Passport Necessary: Music Beyond The Borders.” These should have been the template for the compilation, with artists speaking out on issues the Festival claims to highlight and spitting raps based on personal industry experience. Bun B going back and forth with Big K.R.I.T. about the one-time stigma of being a Southern rapper would have been of greater interest than the recycled standout single from Smoke DZA’s Rolling Stoned.
This lack of direction is confounded by the baffling number of songs on the offer. It might seem churlish to criticize a compilation for offering up too many tracks. This is the Internet era: there’s little point putting your stock in value-for-money because so much is free – or available to grab for gratis – anyway. It also means the true up-and-coming names on the comp have little hope of standing out from the more heralded figures.
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If indie-level artists can learn anything from those on the majors, it’s the idea of exclusivity; after all, this year’s biggest and most hyped record, Watch The Throne, was only 12 songs short. Rounding up 45 different artists may symbolize solidarity when it comes to performances at the A3C Festival itself, but here on Volume 1 it backfires and creates a compilation soon suffocated from a lack of identity and direction.
