The Main Ingredient

by C.L. Smooth, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth

Overview

On their third release overall and second full-length, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth scaled back on the expansive scope of their sprawling first opus, Mecca & the Soul Brother, indeed opting to magnify the main ingredients of their sound: Pete Rock's brilliant production chops and C.L Smooth's complex lyrical delivery. The result is an album that is far more focused, with all the ragged edges and loose threads tied up. It is also just as good as the first record, perhaps an even more satisfying single listen. The Main Ingredient is full of rich, resonant, hypnotic songs -- the production being among some of the most seductive in hip-hop -- that subtly, but absolutely, swing with their lock-step precision. In characteristic Pete Rock fashion, all of the sharp edges have been sanded down, leaving a vibrant and completely lush musical backdrop which seems to have a dreamy nostalgia about it. Old '60s and '70s soul, soul-jazz, and funk samples abound, and the music is dotted with gauzy keyboard washes, hugely echoed bass-drum kicks, milky basslines, and muted horn loops, almost sounding like they are emanating out of water. All of the songs feel immediate, yet they are infused with the sort of roomy ambience that lends to each the impression of a classic tune, evocative of an earlier era, but not one that can be described exactly, and not one to which you can definitively point. As usual, C.L. Smooth is lyrically on point, spitting out intellectual rhymes and narratives that are just as propulsive and engaging as the music. The only negative aspect about the album, then, is that it ended one of the finest hip-hop duos of the first half of the 1990s. ~ Stanton Swihart

Product Details

Release Date:	04/01/2016
Label:	Get On Down
UPC:	0664425272413

Tracks

Disc 1

1. In the House
2. Carmel City
3. I Get Physical
4. Sun Won't Come Out
5. I Got Love
6. Escape
7. The Main Ingedient
8. Worldwide

Disc 2

9. All the Places
10. Tell Me
11. Take You There
12. Searching
13. Check It Out
14. In the Flesh
15. It's on You
16. Get on the Mic

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth   Primary Artist
C.L. Smooth   Primary Artist
Pete Rock   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Allan Felder   Composer
Kevin Burke   Composer
Bobby Lyle   Composer
C.L. Smooth   Producer,Executive Producer
Larry Mizell   Composer
Fonce Mizell   Composer
Rod Hui   Engineer
Pete Rock   Producer,Performer
Maurice White   Composer
Danny Clinch   Photography
Norma Jean Wright   Composer
George Duke   Composer
Harvey Scales   Composer
Keni Burke   Composer
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth   Producer
Leona Lewis   Composer
Mary Ann Dibs   Design,Art Direction
Nick Dida   Composer
Jamey Staub   Mixing,Engineer
Bob Lehnert   Composer
Damian Blyden   Executive Producer
Cathie Arquilla   Stylist
Corey Penn   Composer
Peter Phillips   Composer,Executive Producer
CL Smooth   Producer
Dida   Composer
Robert Odindo   Composer