So you're thinking, how does a kid no one has ever heard of have a best of album? Under normal circumstances the artist would be playing themselves but G.Q. (short for God Quality) has attained legendary status in the fertile grounds of Allentown, PA. With a large Hispanic community having relocated to the Lehigh Valley from New York and Philly, Hip Hop is alive and well in "the A." G.Q. is part of that migration as a talented, Bronx born Puerto Rican emcee.

The opening track is live freestyle footage of G.Q. opening for KRS ONE and Mad Lion at Symphony Hall back in 1997. The host throws out topics while G.Q. never misses a beat and stylishly nails his rhymes. I've seen this brother freestyle live and I'm here to tell you he is hands down one of the top freestylers in the Greater Philadelphia Region. On 2001's Da Ghetto Inn, G teams up with Biz Bronze for a flowing mixtape friendly, stripped down verbal snack sure to impress. The same verbal linguistics witnessed on previous tracks pop up on the more head noddin' sounds of DJ Buttaball Ed's track Da Dynasty and Milk 99 with Adlib. While not attempting to say that G.Q. is in the same rare air as Madd Skillz, these songs are certainly reminiscent of his overall style and more than does the job as a party starters. The highlight of the compilation and proof positive of G.Q.'s status as a top shelf emcee can be heard in his sixty second snippet from DJ Menace's Volume 13 mixtape. He spits lines such as "metaphysical, spiritual, scientifical, psychological chemical, to burn you, spread out and learn you, manifest and turn the keys three hundred and sixty degrees, around Egyptian trees, I cypher with pharaohs and emcees and pyramids to please..." Damn! There are so many instances of lyricism on this effort that its like a super sized value meal. G.Q. enlists the assistance of Jinx and King Magnetic on the solid underground sound of Da Party Joint.

The Best Of G.Q. is a no-brainer addition to any underground Philly Hip Hop collection. While everything on the album is palatable, there are unnecessary filler tracks. This is bound to happen anytime nineteen tracks are squeezed onto an album. In this case less would have turned out to be more. That said, I recommend contacting Allentown's Da Undaground Setat 610-432-8822 to order a copy of the album.

itsallday.com

Reviewed by Funk Wizard Snow
Editor- PhillyHipHop.com
April, 2002