Posted on 04/16/2009
The harsh realities of urban dwelling have been depicted explicitly in hip-hop music with nearly every major city in America represented – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Miami among them. With the historic notion of our nation’s first black President, its never been more important to put Washinton, D.C. on the map. However, the city’s homegrown music of choice – Go-Go – still enjoys the most prominence (although Wale’s major label signing has caused waves in the nation’s capital). Diamond District, a trio consisting of producer/MC Oddisee, producer/MC yU and soloist XO, aim to change that very narrow perspective with the release of the stellar In The Ruff.

After a spoken intro from Oddisee, the album starts strong with “Streets Won’t Let Me Chill.” The distinct and original flows from each of the MCs shine over Oddisee’s thumping production –XO’s anchoring verse nearly steals the show although yU and Oddisee are no slouches either. Next is “Who I Be,” another hard as nails track from Oddisee. yU starts the track off with a blistering, defining verse with Oddisee and XO matching the intensity with devastating wordplay and flow. “Back to Basics” continues the trend of Oddisee’s head nodding production expertly coupled with the trio delivering clever battle-styled verses with little effort. The first single, “I Mean Business,” is an amazing platter from Oddisee, and XO starts the show off with his impeccable rhyme scheme. yU follows with a sincere verse that seems to capture the tension of the backing production. Oddisee’s chanted hook and strong anchoring verse is the highlight of this track. The title track is perhaps the strongest track amongst many worthy contenders. The production takes a more organic approach yet remains hard simultaneously. The hook is captivating and the MCs continue to shine as they have on the previous tracks.

“The District” provides the listeners with one of the more glaring descriptions of the nation’s capital – Oddisee’s beat once again providing an excellent canvas on which the MCs display their respective visions of their city, few of which are pretty. “Make It Clear” is a drum programming lesson in motion. The busy, funky track from Oddisee matches the slippery flows of the MCs with ease. With this track, and several others throughout the LP, Oddisee slips in some slick interludes (perhaps as a nod to Pete Rock) between the songs – each of them as good as anything else present on this disc. Perhaps this is a signal of more projects in the works for the trio. For now, this album should hold many listeners over and garner repeated spins. It is easily one of better releases in this first quarter of the year and the fully realized sound of the project does not disappoint one bit.

- D.L. Chandler