Apparently, this gorgeous audio landscape wasn't supposed to see release. Pete Rock had just spent a good portion of 1995 (when he wasn't making records for his group with musical partner CL Smooth, that is) shaping & forming the first album release by his newly signed group, INI, as well as the group itself. It was a 100% Soul Brother #1-produced affair; and it showed-through in each individual track. Elektra; the major label through which Pete Rock had his vanity label; still was hesitant to commit. And so, like many other albums through-out hip-hop history; Center of Attention was destined for the LP elephant graveyard. Until it wasn't. It was the year 2003, and Pete Rock had recently stepped-out a few years before on his own to attempt a solo career. He was having a career resurgence at the beginning of the aughts - riding the backs of the then-popular neo-soul and underground rap/backpacker movements; to whom which Pete Rock was regarded as a hip-hop savant. And it's easy to see why after giving Center of Attention a few spins. The album is consistent through-out; starting with 'No More Words' (which is as quintessential a Pete Rock production as you can get, really) and continuing 'til ending track 'Wanderlust'; which is dripping with mellow vibes. This is, of course, the main benefit of having a lone producer making the beats for your album. And therein lies the consistency - there's only one cook in the kitchen. And Pete Rock is serving-up dish after dish of drum-pattern deliciousness. The other involved group members don't really strand-out themselves, though. They are: Rob-O, Grap Luva (I don't even wanna know why...), Ras G, Marco Polo, and DJ Boodakhan (maybe he smokes while watching Star Trek 2 a lot??). Not that it matters; not a single member really stands-out that much. It's kinda like Group Home's Livin' Proof album, in that the producer of the album is the actual star (even though this same producer doesn't appear on any of the vocals) and the emcees involved are simply a means to an end. Not to discredit any of the guys involved - their vocal delivery and tone are a perfect match to the actual music. Record label BBE noticed this as well; and INI's Center of Attention finally received a "proper" album release in 2003 as I stated above. I used quotations there because it was essentially a combining of two old Pete Rock-produced albums from his ill-fated Soul Brother #1 Records - Center of Attention as well as The Original Baby Pa by Mount Vernon, NY emcee DeDa (I think it's pretty obvious that Pete Rock isn't known for his taste in artist names). BBE slapped the two albums onto a double disc LP and called it Lost & Found: Hip-Hop Underground Soul Classics. Center of Attention was heavily bootlegged from the minute it hit the studio cutting-room floor. Except this was pre-Napster, so it was basically a buncha Boom-Bap fiends trading over-dubbed cassettes and eventually CD-R's (truly a motley group after my own heart) for an almost-decade plus. The cover, a plain orange-ish background with a vintage black image of a young African-American girl, stood-out among the racks of clearance CD's and forgotten rap mixtapes alike at Amoeba Records on Telegraph Ave. The store was slowly becoming my musical tabernacle, and I came to worship every week (and literally twice on some Sundays). And every single time for those first few years of musical (see: mostly hip-hop) that I did the ritual of walking up-and-down the aisles of records - Center of Attention woulds stand-out, as if to almost call to me. Somehow the LP got lost in the sands of time, and I never was able to soak-in that experience of hearing an amazing album for the first time. Now I have the rest of my life.
NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL THE 90'S: Karl Kani Edition
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