Born Omar Credle in Brooklyn- never for one second has the man stopped reppin' his hood- running with another Out Sounds' favorite Diamond D's Diggin' in the Crates crew, O.C. strikes a balance between his depression and desire to move into the light, presenting us with a dark and introspective record that isn't cringeworthy like a lot of today's rappers. O.C. was very critical of gangsta rap, preferring to talk instead about relationships, his faith and racism. This album is a perfect snippet of the mid-90s inner city zeitgeist.
Featuring production from an all-star cast like Lord Finesse, Buckwild and Organized Konfusion, the beats and samples are very sophisticated, dare I say abstract, while lending a jazzier quality to the sound that by 1994 a lot of producers in hip-hop were starting to move away from.
