Ultramagnetic MCs' Kool Keith Housing Things, based around the same grindingly compulsive funk sample, may be better, but this is the one with the sense of the event around it. It's one of the few mythologised "greats" from hip-hop's so-called golden period (1986 to the early 90s) that actually outstrips expectations when you listen to it now, and it's the high point of that refinement of battle rap that goes beyond the battle, where the emcee has, in his mind, overtaken everyone else and only has his own previous records to outdo. It's phenomenal stuff, monumentally and gloriously egotistical.
Kane drives this track imperiously, like he knows it'll be the one people remember him for. His sense of superiority is effortless, and when you listen to his voice you can sense the drive and compulsion he was possessed with (with the pace of his delivery and his ability, beyond even some of the very greatest emcees, to sound utterly convincing and intimidating at acid-level BPM, he has a reason to). Casual dismissal of all those around you has rarely sounded more effective. It still sounds like an object lesson for anyone attempting to perfect verbal dexterity and the art of the ego-rhyme.
It doesn't go all out to frighten you, but you don't want to mess with it. For the four minutes it's on, Kane doesn't just become, in your mind, the greatest emcee ever, but you genuinely can't imagine anyone being better.
Robin Carmody, 26th August 2000