Pete Rock & CL Smooth: "All Souled Out"

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01. Good Life
02. Mecca & The Soul Brother
03. Go With The Flow
04. The Creator
05. All Souled Out
06. Good Life (Group Home Mix)

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Good Life
Right from the start Pete Rock’s introduction to the world was amazing; the low-key intro with beautifully performed cuts leads into a funky horn-laced beat with the typical thumping early ’90s beat. CL Smooth’s smooth voice is perfect for this type of production and his lyrics are definitely great; despite the title this is not a song about no luxury good life but more about people searching to feel good in themselves, speaking on the dangerous of drugs and the importance of education amongst other things.
Between the verses Rock shows off his incredible talent as a mix-DJ with beautifully laced scratches and vocal samples from both jazz and hip-hop records. 9/10

Mecca & The Soul Brother
Ah this is just as classic as it gets; CL Smooth’s delivery over the fast-paced drums and heavy bass is incredible. Rock’s trademarks are definitely present and production-wise it must have taken a long time finding all the samples for this song; fine-tuning them, making them sound in key and harmonic with eachother. Lyrically some would maybe see the verses as simple braggadocious; but this is just that triumphant that every word CL utters rings true. It’s Mecca & The Nr. #1 Soul Brother for god’s sake!
The way this song pumps for a good 6 minutes without ever getting boring is a true testament to how great this duo actually was; remember that this was even the first single they ever put out! 10/10

Go With The Flow
Starting off ill with a recognizable sample of a flute that I can’t really place right now, coupled with a sparse breakbeat, lays the foundation for Rock’s production. Smooth does the title justice; “like the flute I blow, and just go with the flow”. Once again the amazing cuts between the verses add to the songs brilliance, I still can’t decide whether DJ Premier or Rock is the best producing DJ.
After the last verse 2 minutes of the instrumental follows with various, hard-to-detect, samples and clips of jazz, funk and soul are all smoothly thrown into the mix. Just like Diamond D’s early production-work, Rock’s early beats would have cost millions of dollars to publish today because of all the sample clearance issues. 9/10

The Creator
Time to flip the stake; Pete Rock gets on the mic while CL Smooth handles some of the DJ work on here. This is obviously the first verse Rock laid down on wax ever, the lyrics are written by none other than the amazing Grand Puba though. Even 15 years later I don’t consider Pete Rock to be an especially good rapper, but here he is at his most unoriginal; lyrics obviously sound like something Puba would spit and Pete’s flow is going at CL’s too much; you can hear how he’s ending all the sentences in the exact same tone that CL does.
The beat’s main driving force is the heavy bass and coupled with the hard drums and the funk and jazz samples it’s definitely a winner. Production-wise, that is. 7.5/10

All Souled Out
I would say that this is CL Smooth’s best performance on this EP; the BPM of the production is high, so CL has to work at double-speed on the mic and he definitely manages to pull it off. As for the beat, it is more of the same formula; souled out sample-driven music with the typical horns intact, and Rock exercising his scratching-skills for the hook. It might sound a little uninspired on paper but the fact is that it’s still damn enjoyable although I would say Pete wasn’t fully evolved yet on the “All Souled Out” EP. 9/10

Good Life (The Group Home Mix)
This remix is a real gem, it has some of the elements of the original but still different enough that it could have gone unnoticed as a completely different song if it had new lyrics. The chopped up bass is heavier and the mix, though using many of the same samples, creates a catchy atmosphere that could have made it a popular single in the early ‘90s. 9/10

4.5/5

[CharlesJones]

I never heard this album before but i remember seeing Mecca And The Soul Brother video and i was wondering how come the video version wasn't on their Mecca And The Soul Brother album. The remix sucks compared to the video version. You tripping talking about you don't like CL Smooth's voice. His voice is good and his lyrics are tight. I was very disappointed in his solo album American Me. The beats on that album are terrible.

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full review added..

[Krusha]

Pete Rock & CL Are Dope!