The saying goes, "You can't judge a book by it's cover." Apparently, this cliché also applies to album covers as well. With a torn and bloody baseball corkscrewed with a threaded flathead as their logo, the most trite expression in the new millennium as their album title and the group themselves posed wearing bright colors but attempting to look hard, rappers KL, Hostyle, Poet and Kyron already have their work cut out for them.
That is why it is likely their debut release from Tommy Boy will be passed in the aisles of music stores this summer for rap albums of a lesser caliber. But the Queensbridge (NY) quartet of Screwball defy the odds with their sleeper hit Y2K.
Not adding anything new to the mix that hasn't already been overdone by other artists, Screwball's standout quality is not their lyrical content, nor the individual skills of the artists, but the production and atmosphere of this release as a whole. Screwball incorporates their distinct NY style and flavor, and while they are not as hot as Mobb Deep, they blow fellow QB rappers Capone -n- Noreaga out of the water.
Screwball puts rappers in their place over another DJ Premier gem on "F.A.Y.B.A.N."; prepares the masses for warfare on the eerie title track; drops some classic hip-hop over Biz Markie's beat making abilities on "Biz Interlude"; spits venomous verses on the anthem, "H-O-S-T-Y-L-E," and asks the cowards "Who Shot Rudy?"
Y2K is surprisingly tight for a virtually unknown group, and Screwball's underground status makes them aggressive for mainstream acceptance. This may be why their lyrical content is so narrowly focused, however, the foursome exude a lot of energy and the album's positives far outweigh the negatives.
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