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***1/2 SOLESIDES

GREATEST BUMPS

(Quannum Projects)

In the secret history of underground hip-hop, no crew looms larger than Northern California’s Solesides collective, which features genre heavyweights like Blackalicious, DJ Shadow, and Latyrx. Even as other independent-minded California posses (Freestyle Fellowship, Hieroglyphics) were faltering in the aftermath of major-label disappointments, the Solesides folks decided to remain independent, digging deep into their crates, their rhyme sheets, and their wallets to support their own hip-hop dreams. From 1993 to 1997 Solesides’ slow-drip release schedule, independent business practices, and impossibly high artistic standards created an international fan base that far overshadowed its meager discography of only 11 releases (mostly vinyl singles).

Solesides has since transformed into Quannum (same artists, different name), and it continues to stoke the flames of its obsessive fan base with Solesides Greatest Bumps — a two-disc collection that compiles unreleased nuggets, out-of-print tracks, and highlights from the pre-Quannum era. This lengthy set will, one hopes, drive down the prices of Solesides ephemera on eBay, but it offers more than just fodder for trainspotters. An essential document of the West Coast underground, Greatest Bumpsfinds this earthy and crunchy Bay Area crew setting the standard for trends (sampling rare soul 45s, spoken-word/poetry inflections) and entire subgenres (trip-hop) that are still reverberating throughout the hip-hop world. Too ambitious to be contained by even-tempered rhyme meter, these virtuoso MCs whisper, shout, flow, and sing their way through tracks that stretch hip-hop to the breaking point but snap back just before it shatters.

— Michael Endelman