A cursory listen to Record Playas, Soundtracks For Days might yield the impression that they went to great lengths to construct twenty-four ways to say, "blah." The twenty-four tracks are filled with a myriad of mostly unknown lyricists with little obvious connection from one song to another and few truly stand-out tracks. But with time, catchy, simplistic beats from the production team of Mind, Nobel and Jesus, chip away at the apparent mediocrity and make this a solid, if slightly long release that has its finger squarely on the pulse of the vibrant Chicago underground hip hop scene.

At odds with trends of times, rather than asking different producers for beats to rhyme over, the trio that make up the Record Playas provide beats for a long list of MCs and the emphasis tends to remain on the production as a result. One of the reasons that this is such a difficult album to initially appreciate is that there are far too many lyricists to keep track of and the lyrical style and content tend to fluctuate wildly from track to track. The thing that holds this album together is the steady, jazz-influenced production. As might be expected, the songs go with the production-most of the lyricists are neither good enough to save songs with weak beats nor bad enough to ruin tracks with the layered, catchy beats the Record Playas often create. An exception to this rule is "Don't Tell Nobody 2017," where Infinito rises above a bare-bones beat by Jesus to spit rapid-fire staccato lines that suggest he may have a promising future: "As FBI fights CIA, you scandalous like Enron/ see I say nay, better yet no is the way/ a good county hospital's getting pay taken away/ a man can make a plan somewhere in Pakistan/ upper hand was taken, enemy in command."

On the other hand, Erebus's lyrical work is clearly over-shadowed by the excellent beat on "Environmental Products." In many ways, this track embodies all the things the Record Playas do well while also underscoring a weakness-good, but not great lyricists. The interplay of upright bass and fluttering piano licks along with occasional, well-used samples and scratching show that the Record Playas have to ability to construct beautifully inventive, jazzy beats. Perhaps it's due to the fact that Soundtracks For Days is almost eighty minutes long, but the group seems to be at their best on the tracks when they are the farthest away from traditional hip hop beats. Some of the more straight hip hop songs such as "Record Playa" and "Stressed" can border on boring but more challenging songs such as the aforementioned "Environmental Products" and "Project Ben" are great. "Project Ben" is essentially a jazz quintet song with drums, bass, trumpet, trombone (both supplied by the excellently named Supacolodons) and turntable. Too often, turntabilism places technical acuity ahead of any concerns for the beat but no such mistake is made here. "Project Ben" and several of the other tracks that Noble cuts on are great examples of how scratching can add to, rather than take away from, a beat.