20-track companion piece to NBA video game a long-playa in its own right
He’s not only the president; he’s also a client: Chris Manak (a.k.a. NorCal spin doctor Peanut Butter Wolf) may be the CEO of the highly in?uential underground-hip-hop label Stones Throw, but he’s also a well-credentialed b-boy with an endless supply of vinyl and a lethally skilled pair of hands. After issuing his Chrome Children collaboration with Adult Swim in 2006 (not to mention a decade-spanning Stones Throw best-of earlier this year), PB Wolf goes the full monty by busting out beats for some of game’s ?nest mic-jocks, including Madlib (whose alter ego, Quasimoto, weighs in with “Hydrant Game,” a stone-cold, blunt-puffing classic), MF Doom (“Mash’s Revenge”) and a Q-Tip/Talib Kweli verbal duel (“Lightworking”). It may not hang together like the work of a single artist, but for those who’ve ever spent a sweaty summer afternoon in Rucker Park watching the street-ballers get their game on, it’s the perfect soundtrack for the high-wire acrobatics of the Harlem homeboy’s homecourt. So: who’s got next?