(Nuff Said/Shogun)

Quiet hot for a minute, Nuff Said Records remains one of Oz hip-hop’s best and most respected labels. With this latest compilation mixing established stars and up and comers Nuff Said has announced there return to the forefront of the scene. In the early 90’s Nuff Said was right there with Obese shaping the fledgling scene, with releases such as Prowla’s Water and MC Que’s (perhaps our first female MC) Tellin It Like It Is. The label had taken a back seat lately as Obese has blown behind acts like the Hilltop Hoods, Art Of War and Bliss N Eso. By about the third bar of the intro all doubt in your mind should be removed as In Case You Didn’t Know is one of the best compilations in recent memory.

Kicking things off is veteran MC Dedlee, his uniquely Australian flow (or “Frankston Flow” as it is known) rides all over Prowla’s beat with ease kicking, the album off in style. Next up the ladies take control old skool head MC Que partnered with newcomer Joske over a funky Prowla creation, solid not outstanding – this is the albums weakest cut, yet still has definite replay value, perhaps it suffers from the quality either side of it on the playlist. Outstanding is the exact word to describe the next two contributions firstly Brad Strut who absolutely destroys The Demon Speaks. Seemingly raising his game with each year Strut deserves every accolade thrown his way. Less well known, but equally as dope, are Field Trip. Around on the underground scene for a little bit, The Beginning signifies their arrival as artists. Check for there second release in the not to distant future.

Tumi is an interesting artist. Hailing from South Africa, he has been aligned with Nuff Said for a while now. Here Prowla creates a somewhat moving beat as Tumi delivers tales of growing up on the mean streets of South Africa and the bullshit that this entailed. Following a brief verse from US MC and Nuff Said artist Shawn Lov, are one of the brightest stars on the horizon – Lost Souls – with their self produced track Sacrilege. Its chorus contains some sage advice for the digital age we live, including lines like “Sacrilege is scratching with CDs” and “Sacrilege is when you sample off the net”.

After J-Flow gets introspective on Apocalypse and The Eastern Block flip a popular line on Scared to sleep into their hook “Sleep is the cousin of death, but the brother of life”, comes arguably the album’s best track – Cold Blooded from A.I. A group with no releases to date shouldn’t make music this good, MC Bashir and MC/Producer Dan Murphy deliver battle styled rhymes over an up-tempo beat including this gem, “You celibate, you impotent, coz you cant and wont fuck with it”. With their first release due in 2006 A.I are indeed the future of Oz hip-hop.

Rounding out an excellent compilation are Clinic, recalling a day in his life on Brisbane City De Ja Vu, making the transition from battle rapper to storyteller with ease. Speaking of battle rappers Justice, who recently took out the prestigious Scribble Jam battle in the USA, teams with Kaos to form Third World Militia whose track The Takeover sees Justice avoid the dreaded battle-MC-who-cant-make-tracks tag. Finally we have Bloom, who at 19 is already a star if the instrumental track A Dream Eye Sore is anything to go by. The right amount of funk from go to woe sums up his production style for me, in 5 years time he could very well be the new Hermitude.

It’s not often I detail each track in a review, but as a collective the artists on In Case You Didn’t Know demand it. Comprising a good mix of forgotten artists, established stars and up and coming skilled MCs, this is a must own.