Tony Touch: The Piece Maker : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Mix-tape master Tony "Toca" Touch favors banging hip-hop cuts with sturdy wordplay and searing hooks, but his first big-label DJ mix isn't all solemn street-corner grit. The Piece Maker collection is bouncy and belligerent, thanks in no small part to playful samples and outbursts from our larger-than-life Latino host. A diverse battalion of lyrical heavyweights works all the angles: Gang Starr's Guru sets it off with his cocky rasp; Xzibit clowns with Likwit crew comrades Tash and Defari; wonderboy Mos Def flips it lovely en espanol; and Rah Digga confirms our hunch that she's the ballsiest member of the Flipmode Squad. Senor Toca takes his hands off the turntables long enough to grab the mike, too, dropping rhymes with aplomb and producing intoxicatingly upbeat anthems that shine alongside DJ Premier's bristling scratches and DJ Muggs' smoldering bombs. Catering to both savvy mainstream heads and keep-it-real kids, The Piece Maker reminds us why Tony is a street legend -- he gives people what they want. (RS 842)

KATHRYN FARR