What More Can I Say

Audio Two’s MC Milk Dee may not have had the verbal dexterity to match top golden-age MCs like Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, or Kool G Rap, but he compensated through sheer audacity and an imperturbable lyrical swagger that made Audio Two’s “Top Billin’” one of the most memorable singles of its era. The track is the very soul of simplicity, with a stuttering drum pattern cleverly looped and swathed in cavernous reverb. This forms the backdrop for an endless stream of Bed-Stuy repping boasts and clever putdowns, all capped by a refrain that perfectly embodies Audio Two’s effortless (if momentary) supremacy on the hip-hop scene: “Milk is chillin’, Gizmo’s chillin’/What more can I say? Top billin’!” Since its release, “Top Billin’” has been sampled and adapted ad infinitum and is undisputedly the most outstanding track on Audio Two’s full-length debut, What More Can I Say. Still, the rest of the album stands on its merits as a lean, pugnacious slice of crowd-moving golden-age hip-hop.