Reviewed by Stephen Adams

2003. The year that Christian hip-hop legends hung up their boots and called it a day. This year, Tunnel Rat leader, Dax FKA Theory, releases his last album as part of LPG, Sup (now Soup) The Chemist also releases his last. This, as you can probably guess by now, is Peace 586’s last LP. He of pioneering old school duo Freedom Of Soul, and whose sonic fingerprints could be felt on the production of Tunnel Rats’ releases during the ‘90s. Generations is intended to be Peace’s last release as an solo MC, and in order to focus on the rhymes, the production has been handed to his fellow Tunnel Rats’ producer, Don ‘Dert’ Baker, as well as offerings from Raphi, and new Tunnel Rat addition, Jermz (1/2 of the duo, The Foundation). This kinda makes you miss Peace’s signature sound, but still makes for a much stronger effort than his last LP, ‘586’ which was very patchy. ‘Generations’ is similar to another Uprok release, ‘Collaborations’ by KJ-52, in that every track on here features a guest of some sort, but it allows Peace as an elder of the scene to show both where Christian hip-hop has come from, with guests such as Soup The Chemist, I.D.O.L. King, LPG & Dynamic Twins, and where it’s going, with cameos from The Remnant (formerly Remnant Militia), Mass Reality and the newer Tunnel Rat members. As far as the music goes, we get everything from the soulful “Love’s Still There” with superlative singing from Jon Gibson, the killa club anthem “Hardballin”, with New Breed, to the hardcore hip-hop of “Solid” featuring members of The Remnant. Only once or twice does Peace sound like his slightly old school (but still nice) flow is struggling over Dert’s brilliant nu skool beats, again making us kinda miss Peace’s production. However, the song that makes this whole CD worth purchasing is the last one. Peace goes out with a bang on the song “Here For Years”, produced by Jermz and featuring New Breed’s Macho, and new Tunnel Rat MCs Propaganda and DOKument (The Foundation’s other half). Over an amazingly banging beat and some killer rhymes, Macho sings on the hook, “We came in with the Master Plan/We left it all in the Master’s hand/I don’t know where you go from here, but we’re gon’ be here for years”. What a perfect way to end a stellar career. Very solid CD. Support a legend and get it.

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