DJ Parker Lee Presents Grandmaster Caz – Mid Life Crisis

I’m kind of ashamed to say that 30 years into his career, this mixtape is my introduction to Grandmaster Caz. I’d heard a few Cold Crush Brothers songs, “MC Delight” (which is on the mixtape), and his features on De La Soul’s “Stixs and Stonz” and Slow Suicide Stimulus’s “Roll Up”, but that’s about it. Not being too familiar with his work, I wasn’t sure what to expect out of Mid Life Crisis.

The first thing that caught my attention was Caz’s flow. He’s pretty nice on the mic. The second thing I noticed is that Caz seems a little bitter about not being as respected as he thinks he should be. This is most notable in the songs “Lioneere” and “MC Delight”, the latter being a diss toward Big Bad Hank and Sugarhill Gang for never paying him respect after taking a verse from Caz and using it on “Rapper’s Delight”.

Mid Life Crisis has a good variety of tracks, which should be expected since it spans 15 years. It has some old school party tracks, some conscious tracks, and some tracks on the state of hip hop. It shows off his old school roots, and more importantly shows that he can still keep up with the new school rappers.

Overall, this is a solid mixtape It has some shortcomings. Some of the tracks suffer from being caught somewhere between old school and new school, but for the most part it’s enjoyable, with intelligent rhymes and head-nodding beats. Highlight tracks are “A Good Man Gone”, “MC Delight”, and “Don’t Mess Wit Me”. I was impressed enough that I’ll be checking out some more of Caz’s work.

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