Ron Browz f/ Stack Bundles - "What They Want" (mp3)

As much I still go to music stores and shop for CDs, I almost never make impulse buys anymore. The one thing the internet changed is that I pretty much know everything I'm going to the store to get beforehand, and even when I occasionally learn about something by finding it in the racks, I probably don't buy it the first time I see it. But I made an impulse buy the other day of Ron Browz presents The Wonder Years, a compilation of his recent productions released in May.

I'm not a huge fan of Browz (always thought the beat on his signaure production, "Ether," kinda sucked), but he does have a few joints I like ("Who" by Jae Millz especially), but I always like to hear a good hip hop producers' work lined up together, which is the main reason I do the Producer Series Mixes. It's always interesting to me to see what kind of variety and what kind of recurring motifs come up when you hear work that was done with all these different artists for different projects all together. And Ron Browz comes accross pretty well on The Wonder Years. He's got kind of a classic NY headknock aesthetic, but it's not too reliant on samples, and even when he does sample he doesn't let that define the texture of his tracks, which have this kind of trebly plastic feel that actually works great when it does work. I could very easily see Browz turn out a couple of those NYC rap crossover hits that still happen a couple times a year these days and manage to sell a mess of ringtones.

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but it's funny to me that the producer of "Ether" would put two more diss tracks right up near the beginning of his album; The Wonder Years features "Shoot Me A Fair One," Papoose's rambling 7-minute response to his altercation with Fat Joe a while back (remember that?), and "Old School Mouse," the Joe Budden edition of the lengthy series of Def Jam artists griping about Jay-Z (I wonder if Budden got Browz for the track on purpose for the "Ether" connection?). But then, Jadakiss shouts out J-Hood on his track and J-Hood reps D-Block on his, so obviously those were pre-beef. But my favorite track is one of the several posthumous appearances by Stack Bundles, "What They Want," which does something different with those awesome clipped snares from "Who." The Jaws strings and sonar pings on Traffic's "Da Goons" are pretty dope, too.

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