It’s not immediately clear why European producers (especially these from the UK and France) should fly the flag of boom-bap hip-hop more than stateside ones in the decades since boom-bap ceased to be the mainstream rhythm pattern of hip-hop, but fly it more they do and Pitchcaps latest LP effort Showtime flies it with bells and gold chains on. Jointly produced by Djar One and Kesta, the album delivers twelve cuts cuts of hard-hitting funk-n-soul-sample-based hip-hop with in-your-face drums and nearly half of them featuring a righteous crew of international rhymesayers gracing the mic including Phill Most Chill, Chrome and Whirlwind D, Blabbermouf, Viktor Coup?K and (deep breath) – Gérard Baste, Mr Xavier, DEF, Jimmy Cena, Le Jules, Anton, MC RYT and JC Vandal on banging posse cut closer Money Time. And that’s besides Djar One (also co-producing with Kesta) and Senbei on the mic, while Kesta’s also on cuts as well as production.
P.I.T.C.H.C.A.P.S. makes for a blistering opener and there’s no slackening of the pace or the punch on Chiche or the title track which has arguably the highest profile and most senior veteran emcee guest on the LP – Phill Most Chill – who effortlessly demonstrates his mic-slaying abilities with bars like “Philly-to-France advancing any circumstance/ I strike a b-boy pose and hit a certain stance/ I’m in demand like PS5s and Birkin bags/ My rhymes got your grandma doing the twerking dance.” Subsequently, Les Contes de l’Apero rumbles along on a double bass-led beat, Whirlwind D and Chrome get busy on Super and then it’s time for the jazzy, half-minute-long cocktail bar interlude Time Out. There’s no time to put your feet up though, for the second half kicks off with Are You Funky and guest Blabbermouf, followed by the booming diss-rap Sales Bavards (roughly translating as ‘dirty gobshites’) before one and a half-minute Kesta instro I Like My Beats Hard segues into the LP’s slowest cut – head-nodder Time Flies – at 91 bpm some 9-18 bpm slower than the remaining cuts. Of the two remaining numbers, one is Saoul Assassins featuring Viktor Coup?K with more than a nod to the production work of the mighty DJ Muggs’ Cypress Hill/ Soul Assassins while the other is posse cut over Money Time which brings things to a close over a juggernaut of a funky beat. Quite possibly the best thing Pitchcaps has ever done, Showtime bangs hard from start to finish.