Who Got the Chemistry?

Reel Chemistry: The Anthology

by J.F. Pirro

Top Choice Clique

Short of a sudden resurgence in interest in the Boston hip-hop scene of the late '80s, it's unlikely that there will ever be a biopic about Top Choice Clique. The group, composed of Jawn P, MC Force and DJ Gemini, operated from roughly 1987 till 1995 before collapsing due to bum label deals and general lack of momentum. And so Reel Chemistry: The Anthology is as close as we're likely to get to any kind of defining document — which, fortunately, is no consolation prize.

At 31 tracks, the compilation makes a strong case for Top Choice Clique as a great lost hip-hop collective, a kind of Naughty By Nature if Naughty By Nature weren't mostly terrible. It also functions as an audio narrative: The early songs are full of optimism and promise. Relying mainly on the kind of scuffed-up soul loops that characterized their more popular peers, Top Choice Clique snatch up acid guitar and harp and gospel vocals and drag them down to the production sub-basement, flecking off the finish until their source material is little more than a few arid husks of sound. The title track is a kind of dented raga, elastic sitar loop circling over and over and over as the crew huffs, "Tell me who got, who got, who got the chemistry?" "Sing a Hymn" forces a gospel choir to run in circles over a big blunted bassline. More impressive than the production, though, is the lyrical dexterity. Top Choice Clique perfected a kind of hundred-syllables-a-second wordflow, a skull-collapsing rapid-fire where every short sound not only complemented the one that followed, but had the added bonus of making perfect linear sense. "Call me the tyrannical/ hungry like a cannibal/ Savages I ravage like the Reaper," yammers Jawn P. in "Perils of Punishment."

Any good tragedy has a turning point, though, and you can feel the dread and desperation start to bleed into the group as the collection wears on. "Survival" finds the group lamenting their neglect by A&M, the label that was supposed to take them from regional to national superstars. That they never broke is kind of a mixed blessing. Part of what makes Reel Chemistry so rewarding is the sense of discovery: a rare lost masterpiece in an increasingly overcrowded field.

(j_keyes@citypaper.net)