2008 was a ridiculously busy year for Tha Connection, a Long Island based rap duo. Issuing a proper long player and innumerable mix tapes over that twelve month period should have brought the group to a wide audience. But as per usual, the music press was more concerned with Asher Roth and Cudi or whoever else was being touted as the next big thing. How’d full lengths turn out from those guys? Well, both are rich, but that doesn’t mean their discs were all that spectacular.

So waiting on writers to figure out who’s actually putting out real rap classics doesn’t seem like a good plan even if Blu gets due respect here and there in the blog universe. But Tha Connection was (is?) still being ignored. Probably as much out of exasperation as a creative outpouring, the two emcees comprising the group saw fit to team up with Marvelous Mag to found the Strangerz.

Always trucking in laid back jazz and soul styled production Hus and Smoovth have apparently found a complimentary performer in their new partner. With the release of 2^nd to None, there isn’t a dramatic change of musical pacing – perhaps a stronger emphasis on crooned hooks. So, it’s curious as that Tha Connection sought out such a collaboration. Again, though, furthering one’s artistic craft probably has something to do with it. But, that obviously won’t translate into a million dollars or whatever the crew actually deserves for crafting such works.

It’s all explained in “The Way,” as each emcee explain the nonsense that life inevitably unlooses on every life. There’s nothing that’s certain, there’s nothing that’s dependable. It’s all just a tremendous struggle. And add in the posturing of the music industry, life can become a seemingly insurmountable bother. Thankfully, these folks have channeled the daily frustration into a cohesive hip hop message of relative positivity.

Nowhere over the course of 2^nd to None are there wide eyed dreams proffered and realized. The entire disc reads like a personal journal of tribulations. But that’s what folks should have come to expect from Tha Connection – well, folks would have expected it, if there were more people listening.

There hasn’t been a tremendous amount of press done on this album – or anything Tha Connec has been involved with. So, let’s hope that the general ignorance of papers, magazines and blogs doesn’t discourage what could become one of the strongest clutch of performers in rap.