Aiyyo what's up people? This is your boy Richard a.k.a. the desi gorrah bringing you the critical evaluation of BHood The Album Volume 1, straight outta NYC from your girl Ashlene… alright enough of the hip-hop speak, BollyHood Records is a new label put together by Australian desi Ashlene Nand in New York and this compilation is their first release. It combines the best of Asian talent in the Big Apple including Bikram Singh and Sumeet and brings forward some relatively unknown rappers to centre stage. To call this 'Bolly' is a bit of a trades description issue because the closest Bollywood influence is Shahin Badar and it's definitely more of a Bhangra release. Anyway, 'BHood' is a good play on words so we'll let them off.

The first track is called 'Sharabbia (Have Your Way With Me)' by female rapper Jade Foxx and features G Samra (who looks just like our very own Masaeb!!) with the Punjabi verses. It's a fast paced hip-hop tune, which sets a sexy tone for the album. Jade goes on about being in a club and pulling some guy and runs with some good lyrics. Samra's input is pretty standard, what you would expect from an American desi hip-hop track.

Track two adds a bit of grime to the mixture, with RDB putting down a wicked beat for Chicago MC 4-Ize to rap over. Entitled 'Under Attack' this is a great piece of production and is classic in its approach, leaving the rapper to do his thing over the music. You gotta knock your head to this, the Panjabi chorus is alright, again pretty standard but the growls work in harmony with the rest of the tune and the Bolly strings give ample Asian influence. My only criticism is that if 4-Ize really does have as many guns as he chats about on the record then Bush would have sent him to take Iraq all on his own…

We're hit with some ghetto R&B from Christión telling the girls to 'Just Move.' It's a decent tune with some thick melodies, but the input of Bikram Singh's 'Gidday Vich' is about as off topic as breakfast cereal at midnight. The rap lyrics are good and you can vibe to it but there was no need to slow Bikram down just to add more of an Asian element.

Then we get a skit by Ashlene talking to her mom on the phone, which is a bit predictable and not too funny at all.

A true bhangra flavour comes next with a proper version of Bikram Singh's 'Gidday Vich' given a hip-hop remix featuring Punchline. Happy, jolly choruses about dancing are all very nice but don't tie in with the ghetto thuggery lyrics about robbing shops added by Punchline. Don't get me wrong, I like the track but this is the opposite to track three where Bolly was put into the Hood, this is Hood put into the Bolly and it loses coherence.

The main track from the album is number six, with RDB employing Elephant Man to do a dancehall splurt on 'Ishq Naag.' This is a great tribal club tune to get people moving and it's produced to good standards. The desi singing is lyrically very similar to this track's namesake 'Ishq Nagni' done by Tigerstyle last year. I can make more sense of the Punjabi lyrics than Elephant Man's incessant babbling, but it sounds good all the same.

Indian R&B singer Sandeep (formerly of Penn Masala) steps up for track seven, called 'Dangerous' which describes being enchanted by a desi kurri. The beat switches from a western vibe to bhangra and back again in great transition but this isn't much of a tune to dance to. My favourite line is "what she lacked in sugar she made up in spice", which is great imagery and sounds like many men's kinda girl!!

Remember Shakti from Tigerstyle's 'Thang Thang'? She's back here for 'Let's Go' which is her own singing over a wicked beat put together by Bellringer. The singing doesn't quite convince me, and it's not very Indian and I think the beat would've been done more justice by a rapper.

Number nine is 'A BollyHood Story' by Rich London and a chorus from Sumeet. Grimey east coast hip-hop this is a wicked tune laid down by 20-year-old producer Khiladi (watch out for him), with top level rapping and Sumeet's chorus is mad, switching languages between English and Panjabi effortlessly. One of my favourites from the album, this is top-level stuff.

The Shahin Badar track comes next, and is a decent tune with a dark undertone in the music, which brings out the best in Badar's voice. 'Laila' is the only song on the album without a word of English on it and grew on me the more I listened to it.

DJ APS's Zeus/Kam Frantic rip off comes next. 'Bulle Tere' is a good song yeah, but it's a simple case of take a big bhangra tune like 'Ah Ni Kuria' and stick a different vocal on it. Sampling? I guess this is how to do it because it's an emulation and does sound different to the original.

The bhangra mix of Sumeet's 'Agony' track comes next and is right at home on this album. It's urban, it's desi, it's not Bolly (like everything here!) but it has got Hood, so it would've been wrong had it not been on this.

Thara's 'Shake It' is next on the track listing and adds more R&B vibes to the cocktail. I didn't really like this, Thara's performance doesn't do the damage, and La La's rap verse is nothing special.

We finish with an East coast mix of RDB's 'Hor Glassy' with Manak-E's vocal put on an original beat this time instead of a sample. Yukmouth, formerly of Da Luniz (I Got 5 On It), and Saj Supreme give some gangsterisms in their lyrics and it's an good tune but it's blatantly obvious that the vocal wasn't written to this beat.

This is an album that blows hot and cold, with some strong tracks like 'Under Attack' and 'BollyHood Story' let down by some weaker elements. On the whole it is very East coast and if you like your hip-hop chic then this isn't for you. There's a big performance on here from RDB who have a phoenix-like rise form the ashes of their 'Three' album, with a couple of good tracks on here. Another massive positive is that it's a compilation which I've only heard three songs previously. If you're not feeling East coast hip-hop you might not be interested.