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Of course, long-time partner Talib Kweli features more than most but there’s also Snoop Dogg, Ghostface Killah, The Game, Nas, Common, Raekwon, Q-Tip and many more. There’s some of the great soul he’s known for but surprisingly (for me anyway) the unlikely star is Busta Rhymes on the stomper, ‘March’.

‘Baby We Can Do It’ is back in the soul groove with newcomers Haze & Nok and Dion Jenkins sounds superb on ‘Keep On Moving’ and ‘Let It Go’ which is old-fashioned in many ways, as Talib’s rap harks but to the days of love of Frankie Beverley and Maze.

Talkin’ of old school, there’s a couple of tracks with The Willie Cottrell Band that sound like, a real band! ‘People Going Down’ and ‘Josephine’ have a down tempo soul meets reggae feel (like some of Jamaica To Toronto) that comes from the drumming of Eric “E Dub” Isaacs.

‘Joesephine’ is harder and contains the rather unfortunate imagery in the lyrics of Courtney Cox and “an a**hole burnin’ like Tabasco” (it can’t be the Friendsactress?) but hits back at the end with a positive message. Equally for fans of the downtempo, ‘So Tired’ is a grower and definitely one to relax to.

The album finishes with ‘Music For Life’ with a telephone message introduction from Jay Dee as a tribute and being a link with Hi-Teknology that featured Slum Village on a track. Even though Nas, Commom and Busta are on this track, the flute solo and Floetry’s Marsha Ambrosius stand out.

With all these stars on this CD, like XZIBIT , who introduces ‘Money Do’ Make U Rich’, the anthemic ‘Where It All Started at (NY)’ and street wise ‘1-800-Homicide’, it’s refreshing to hear ‘Can We Go Back’ (with Kweli and Ayak) which is just an R ‘n’ B love duet at heart with the added bonus of an excerpt of Earth Wind & Fire’s ‘Brazilian Rhyme’.

While we’ll dig to the death, The Chip is further evidence, that we don’t have to go back to Hi-Teknology as The Chip is Hi-Teknology for 2007. Let’s hope Hi-Teknology3 doesn’t take another five years as it is clear the quality isn’t solely dependant on his big name mates.

Reviewed: Hi-Tek - Hi-Teknology²: The Chip (Babygrande) Cat. No: BBG-CD-302) Release date: 18 December 2006
Tracklisting:
1. The Oracle Intro
2. The Chip
3. Keep It Moving featuring- Kurupt, Q-Tip and Dion
4. Think I Got A Beat featuring Tony “Lil Tone” Cottrell
5. Can We Go Back with Firstman Productions and featuring Talib Kweli and Ayak
6. Josephine featuring The Willie Cottrell Band and Ghostface Killah & Pretty Ugly
7. March featuring Busta Rhymes
8. Where It Started At (NY) featuring Jadakiss, Papoose, Raekwon, Talib Kweli and Dion
9. 1-800-HOMICIDE with producer - Eric “Lil’ E” Coomes and featuring The Game and Dion
10. Money Don’t Make U Rich featuring Krondon, Mitchy Slick, Phil Da Agony, Strong Arm Steady and the voice of Xzibit
11. Baby We Can Do It with producer Young & Rich and featuring Haze & Nok
12. Let It Go featuring Talib Kweli, Dion
13. People Going Down featuring The Willie Cottrell Band
14. So Tired featuring Bun B , Devin The Dude , Pretty Ugly
15. Music For Life - featuring Common, Nas, Marsha Ambrosius, Busta Rhymes, J Dilla

Links
www.hiphopcrack.co/hiteknology2
www.babygrande.com