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The mash-ups craze is hopefully on the downward spiral. Don’t get me wrong, some of the shit Mr. Dibbs and Z-Trip have done have straight blown my mind but if I hear Smells Like Teen Spirit and Billie Jean or Def Leppard and 50 Cent one more time I swear to god I am gonna start raisin Kane. With that said, Deaf in the Family has managed to take the mash-up trend and put a spin on it that even your neighborhoods number one playa hater could get down with. An easy way to describe Deaf in the Family is to take one part classic rock cover band, mix in a production team with ample amounts of street cred and sprinkle in some of the finest underground MCs, blend on high for one minute and serve over ice. Deaf in the family consists of MC Scavone (formerly of Makin Records fame) and the Resource production team that has worked with my personal favorite The Last Emperor and up-and-coming entourage star Saigon. Their record, that has never been officially released ( or has it?????,) entitled For Those About to Rock features a whose who of classic rock tracks including Jimi Hendrix, The Clash, Black Sabbath, and The Eagles. DJ Sae One of The Resource started this project knowing that it had to be a lot more than a mash-ups album and a whose who of hip hop. The MCs needed to have passion and the beats needed to be enhanced, not simply chopped up over some drum loop. “I wanted to bring all the great talent I knew together for the sake of music. I made sure that all of the emcees used the words and the ideas from the original songs in their compositions. On our end, we wanted to make sure we paid respect to the songs musically.” That quote is why I am down with this CD. You need to pay RESPECT to the songs that you use whether it is sampling, mash ups, or even rocking a party. The mash-ups world got to be so competitive that it lost any sense of passion. Since this CD never came out (again, or did it?????) Deaf in the Family is at work on a full-length release for MC Scavone. MaimZ