Kottonmouth Kings :: Greatest Highs

Credit is hereby given to the Kottonmouth Kings for, at the very least, their success in longevity as an “independent” group. Sure, they did have a relationship with the major leagues back in the day, but ultimately they developed their own independent label into something more than a company – it’s basically an entire culture. More than a decade’s worth of promoting their product, and the material of like-minded artists they sign, KMK has more than survived the music business, they virtually created a new version of it. After all this time, they still release material on a yearly basis, and their fans can’t seem to get enough. The latest smoke to rise from the Sub Noize Compound is KMK’s Greatest Highs – a two-disc compilation spanning the group’s career – and it’s actually a joint release with Capitol Records, the label where some of their classic anthems first showed up. Plucked from the nineties classic Royal Highness, tracks such as “Bump” and “Life Ain’t What It Seems” are reminiscent of a time when white-boy rap was burgeoning in synchronicity with the nu-alternative music scene. “Full Throttle” and “Livin’ Proof” go on to infuse a punk rock velocity with hip-hop imagery into a genre they’ve dubbed rip-hop. Both musical genres were part and parcel to the collective’s early influences and continue to be reigned in on contemporary releases. Venturing from the use of live instruments to programmed beats and back again is also common. That said, other favorite joints found here include “Tangerine Sky”, “Where’s the Weed At?” and “City 2 City”. From Daddy X’s calls for personal freedom to D-Loc’s machine gun rapidity of flows to Richter’s catchy ability for singing harmony, Greatest Highs really offers plenty of bang for the buck. Interestingly, the album is not in any chronological order, which further makes the diversity of the group to surface throughout. Recent joints, old jams, mellow songs, hyped up anthems, and straight-up rap bangers collide into one awesome compendium righteous enough for both the casual KMK listener and the hardcore following alike.

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