Uh, yeah, it’s fair to say O.C. is from New York. The Brooklyn-bred rapper has been plying his trade on record since 1991, with enough talent to have survived endless industry trends that have seen lesser artists disappear without a trace from the scene. Indeed it is these trends that O.C. has used to find a comfortable sound and outlet for his releases. His latest, Hidden Gems, is a compilation of unreleased and rare songs spanning from his 1994 debut until the present and is an enjoyable, solid offering.

It certainly defines O.C. as an underground New York emcee, and is a wonderful insight, albeit limited to this artist’s particular perspective, into the sound of this scene between 1994 and 2001. Roughly chronological in its sequencing, Hidden Gems begins with a collection of tracks from the Word…Life (his 1994 debut) sessions. They reflect a time when the East was dominating with horn samples, funk basslines, hard hitting drums and a rugged style on the mic. All three see O at his best: flowing expertly in a candid, earnest manner on a variety of topics. In particular, unreleased offering ‘Snakes’ is a highlight.

The disc then features a number of songs from the late nineties, a time when hiphop sounded either blatantly commercial or underground, and when the independent movement exploded. This middle portion of the album is filled with tracks reflecting the latter, be it the timeless Premier laced ‘Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers’, soundtrack rarity ‘You Won’t Go Far’ with Organized Konfusion (!), classic DITC posse cut ‘Day One’, or Big L running amok on the ‘Get Yours’ remix. They also demonstrate the esteemed company O.C. kept and the amount of talent running around New York at that point.

His emceeing is clearly on point, again addressing a number of subjects, but of more interest is the thuggish, Mafioso style that begins to permeate his work here. He wasn’t alone. Many rappers adopted a fantastic, grandiose style of life that they would rather ironically talk about on vinyl, a form of music any true ‘player’ would find difficult to bump in their Navigator. It’s a style that he utilizes entirely in later tracks such as ‘Half-Good, Half-Sinner’, ‘Bonafied’ (featuring a 1999 Jay-Z spitting the chorus but no verse) and ‘U.N.I.’ to mixed results.

This brings us up to only 2001, but unfortunately little content from after this period is included. Puzzling, considering he released three albums, had two shelved, and recorded numerous underground joints during this period. Of what is included, ‘Emotions’ (from Smoke and Mirrors) is remixed with a sweeter, more commercial sound, a sore thumb amongst what is an otherwise rawer sound. New tracks ‘The Inventor’, and ‘Yes Sir’ featuring Sadat X are throw aways; disappointing and hardly indicative of the quality of music O.C. has recently made.

Releases like these are generally made for fans of the artist, and I would recommend another title from his catalogue for the first time listener. As a fan I welcomed hearing the unreleased and rarer songs, and to many people, even the more available B-sides featured here will still be a blessing to own on CD. That said, it’s a compilation and it sounds like one. Although the quality of music is good, the large amount of guests and the varied producers mean that the songs would sit better on their respective twelve inches as they were intended. Some will find it lacking replay in that regard. The final third of the disc consists of weaker material, and considering how much unreleased music he would have collected over a 16 year career, I find this hard to accept. For now though I’m enjoying banging the first ten tracks and can only continue to hope this talented, intelligent veteran of the scene can continue to follow trends to the same success.