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Here Comes The Fuzz
09/02/2003 8:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dan Leroy
The glorified mixtape approach so many DJs use when assembling albums--draft a bunch of famous friends, and let each have it in their own style--tells you plenty about the turntablist's good taste in music, but little about what really makes him tick. The debut from spinner-to-the-stars Mark Ronson begins much the same way, with hip-hop heavyweights Nappy Roots and Ghostface Killah reprising their signature sounds; by the time Aya arrives to offer "High," the obligatory faceless disco number, you've already been expecting it. But then Ronson throws the rulebook out, and Here Comes The Fuzz gets interesting in a hurry. Several tracks – including the title cut and the blistering "On The Run," which pairs Mos Def and M.O.P. over Lenny Kravitz's best riff--kick hard enough to reanimate rap-rock's smoldering corpse. And the Delta techno of Rhymefest's "Bout To Get Ugly" is even better, obliterating the boundaries of black and white music in word and groove over three-and-a-half amazing minutes. You're left with a clear picture of Ronson's musical vision, and it's more compelling than anyone suspected.
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