From the top down,
Montezuma's Revenge
has the feel of a comeback: bicoastal golden era vets unite for a stab at post-
Kanye
relevance, name record after indigestion, etc. The catch, of course, is that neither
Souls of Mischief
nor
Prince Paul
went much of anywhere. They've been steadily releasing records throughout the aughts. All of which leads one to view
as a cash grab between faded icons, which it may well be, but if so it's one of the best variety in that it fundamentally works without being workmanlike. These guys still have all their charms intact: wry, winning mike tosses from the four MCs over
Paul
's typically effective production, intercut by stoopid skits that counterintuitively maintain momentum. The aqueous
"Tour Stories"
is probably the collaboration's high point, all shimmering vibes, steady boom-bap, and the type of easygoing story-raps that went out of style a long time ago. More
Del
and
Tame One
than
GZA
DJ Muggs
,
is the opposite of a comeback -- a stay-put, maybe, right back in the halcyon '90s. ~ Clayton Purdom