Mecca and the Soul Brother is released

Why it matters

Mecca and the Soul Brother came out June 9, 1992, on Elektra. Pete Rock & CL Smooth at this point were a Mount Vernon production-MC pair: Pete on the boards, CL on the mic. The album is on the short list of perfect rap production albums, in the same conversation as Paid in Full and The Low End Theory. Pete Rock's signature on this record is horn loops. He pulled them from late-60s and early-70s jazz and soul records (Tom Scott, Lou Donaldson, the Soul Survivors, John Klemmer) and built warm, melodic, almost suite-like beats around them. "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)" is the famous one (a tribute to a friend of the group who had died), and the Tom Scott horn loop on it is one of the most recognizable rap-production samples ever. CL Smooth raps in a clean, conversational, never-overheated way that is the perfect register for the production. Mecca and the Soul Brother does not have a bad song on it. You can put it on at any moment of any day and the album will play through you in seventy minutes and leave the day better.