I regret that I had never heard the music of the Sharpshooters until their new album came up on one of RealOne's CD Listening Parties (stream it here). Luckily, now I have and I can spread the word on to you. For a sample, their song "Japanese Mathematics"--which is both representative of the work on
Twice as Nice and at the same time really isn't--is available for
download.
Sharpshooters are DJ Sureshot and Mr Supreme from Seattle, Washington: two guys with massive record collections and terrific ears for songcraft.
Twice as Nice consists of 29 tracks, fourteen of which are full-length songs and the other fifteen are interludes (including an intro and outro) inserted inbetween as a sort of "palate cleanser" to get you ready for the next track.
After my first listen, I couldn't get enough of
Twice as Nice and have listened to at least a little bit of the Sharpshooters masterwork every day since. Smooth samples mixed with downtempo beats and live instrumentation makes for a complete experience of soothing, energizing hip-hop. I never really knew that hip-hop consisted of something other than rap, and if this is hip-hop's future, we've all got a lot to look forward to.
