With the release of his new CD: Stozo Da Klown Presents: DigiDonz... The Lower East Side Story Volume 1, Mr. Da Klown presents to us the soundtrack to perhaps the greatest Blaxtaplotation never made.

Drawing on the styles of all those he has witnessed during his many, many years on the scene, Stozo manages to deliver a fresh and poignant CD which at no time rehashes, reuses, reloops or even directly draws from the people, places or events he has witnessed in all his time with the Funk. He has obviously sat back and watched many of our times ultra-funky super heroes "Do That Stuff" and has definitely been waiting in the wings, perhaps almost too long, to show the world what the brother has learned.

The opening cut, "Ronald Wuzz A Rollin' Stone", a powerful instrumental, takes us directly to what liner notes master and famed P. Funk artisan, Pedro Bell calls the "Lo-E-So" a place not altogether unlike Chocolate City of days long ago, in a galaxy not so far away, perhaps on the other side of the black hole, and hoovers us there, over this area, for a birds eye view till it seemingly falls apart bit by bit and ultimately delivers us into a more modern-day view of the same place via segue into the following cut.

"Mashed Potatoes, Peas & Butta" shows us a place much more hip hoppy, yet still holding onto the urban blights & gangsterlean feels of almost forgotten yesterdays, not unlike those viewed by Slaughter so long ago, with a twist of modern additives mixed with Worrellisms of days gone by and sets the stage for the actual non-start to the unfilm.

In "She Freaked Me Out!" we are taken directly onto the street scenes of this ultra-modern world where we are introduced to several high rolling players who are very reminiscent of Timberland & Mr. Magoo vs. the RZA who has undergone serious speech impediment correction lessons taught by Professor Two-Pock scoring a grade no higher than a "C". In this futuristic unplace it seems that these brothers live in a mirror reality where they are willing to work full time to give all thier earnings to chickenheads and babies-mommas that are the desired objects for marriage and monogamous safe sex relations no matter how badly they dog these thugs out, till in the end they are reduced to the equivalent of Ol' Dirty Bastard begging for the "Nappy Dugout" shamelessly.

"Sto-zodiak" is another fine instrumental which leaves the listener with a "bouncy-to-da-ouncy" easy going feel and brightens him or her up to be "Zapp'd" into the heaviness of the following cut.

On "Guitar In Da Closet" we are shown a much more melancholy and sultry view of the "Man's Man's Man's Man's Man's World" of the Digi Donz of days long ago before they "Almost Cut Their 'Fros" to the fades and flat tops of the wanna-be thugs of the modern day.

"Pass Tha Test" is a light and airy vamp of segue film music which perhaps is meant to take us back from the days of old revisited in "Guitar In Da Closet" to the street scenes of the modern Digi Donz reality where something is bound to break off real soon and probably will!

"White" reeks of action and adventure. The cut is lively and is definitely meant to underscore some super-heavy action which may or may not answer the ultimate question once and for all: "Where's the lumps in my Gravy?".

On "9/11 Emergency" Stozo goes off on lead guitar over top of a backdrop of opium den drug kingpin lair style score music. The playing and arranging on this cut are simply fantastic and shows a side of Stozo that perhaps only "The Kidd" has seen before.

For "Ape In Sto" Stozo "Runs The Voodoo Down" and introduces us to a place where big booty dancers shake and bake for the entertainment of the Digi Don! Dark, Pumping and full of real driving power complete with drug addled parkerisms & milesesque horn breaks all leading to an insane buildup almost to the point of a musical OD.

"Rush To Conclusion" takes us back onto the street scene of the Digi Donz world after emerging from the backroom club party of "Ape In Sto" and gives the feel that the players are still feeling the reeling of the "tastes" they might have sampled while hangin' out in the kingpins back lair, you boyz don't gotta go home but you brothers can't stay here, and provides for a nice segue.

"What's Yo Favorite Color?", perhaps the CD's single, pays homage to (E)racism and features some sultry sax work and screaming lead guitar reminiscent of Michael Hampton's renditions of "Maggot Brain" from live shows of the late 70's. Cleaver lyrics and a positive message missed by almost all CD's of this genre or any other for that matter. This is one killer track.

"Bridge and Tunnel Attack!" features some super driving chase-type music resplendent with seriously dirty guitars again showing that, "Tiny did they realize", Stozo is a master player and superb multi-instrumentalist who can cross genres and styles at the drop of a "J".

On "Players Can't Pretend" we are given a reprise type selection to sum up volume 1 which renews in the listener's mind the the vibe and feel of the Digi Donz and all that has transpired up to this point in Stozo's funk-opera and reaffirms beyond a question of a doubt that Stozo is more than able to write direct and conceive the "concept CD" that many of his forefathers presented to the funky folks in the past while making it futuristic and super-fresh for the clones and maggots of this generation and those to come... and he can still do all the artwork too!!

reviewd by G. Wiggles The Worm a.k.a. IDX1274