Don’t miss the first ever Australian tour of powerhouse hip hop duo, Pete Rock and CL Smooth. Emerging from Mount Vernon New York in the early ‘90s, the pair stayed true to hip hop’s soul roots by fusing intricate soul samples with jazz breaks, and blessing these concoctions with thought-provoking and knowledgeable lyrics. CL Smooth’s voice is one of hip hop’s most recognisable while the prestigious production of Pete Rock has seen him become one of the hip hop’s most influential producers of all time.
In 1991 they released a six-track EP titled All Souled Out which yielded the successful single ‘’The Creator’’ showcasing Smooth’s oven-crisp voice and avoidance of profanity, opting to bless Rock’s compositions with his deeply philosophical lyrics instead. The vast sampling on All Souled Out would be a foreshadowing of Rock’s fondness for complex sampling techniques and a taste for obscure soul breaks, an influence he took from his father’s extensive record collection.
Their 1992 album ‘‘Mecca & the Soul Brother‘’ is regarded as an influential hip-hop classic and featured ‘’Straighten It Out’’ and “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)” which sits firmly in the top 100 hip hop songs of all time. A final album was released by the duo in 1994, ‘‘The Main Ingredient’’, before they parted ways. Both would remain prominent in hip hop contributing to several movie soundtracks as well as solo releases whilst Rock’s production, alongside Rza and DJ Premier went on to define the East Coast sound.
In what is guaranteed to excite not only hip hop, but soul, funk r&b and music fans in general, Pete Rock and CL Smooth will be touring Australia for the first time together in March 2017 in celebration of the 25th anniversary of ‘’Mecca & The Soul Brother’’. If the incredible live reviews from Europe and the United States are anything to go by, Australian fans are in for an absolute treat of golden era hip hop.
Whilst hip hop’s golden age is an era that is celebrated but never replicated. Pete Rock and CL Smooth helped create the sound of the era as well being leaders by innovating the two-person hip hop “group” of one MC and one DJ. Smooth’s silky maneuvering through his lyrics shall forever be celebrated as one of hip hop’s greatest voices. Meanwhile Rock’s intricate knowledge and reworking of soul and jazz records has become a thing of hip hop legend.