All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The Onion (A.V. Club)

The Steinski myth has grown in the darkness of bootlegs, but this long-overdue release proves that the reality more than lives up to the legend.

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100

Spin

Barring "Blade Runner," the best pop art by a former adman. [June 2008, p.119]

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100

MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)

Buy it while you can.

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The Wire

While Steinski's work with DeFranco aka Double Dee, is the most dazzling--precisely because it avoids the pitfalls of run of the mill culture jamming and guerrilla media tactics--Steinski's solo tracks certainly have their own pleasures, even if they are more straightforwardly textural than his collabotation with Double Dee. [June 2008, p.57]

All Music Guide

Rap music has rarely gotten more virtuosic and creative than it does here.

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Sputnikmusic

By listening to What Does It All Mean?, you're giving yourself a vital history lesson, a blast of fun, and above all, some 130 minutes of fantastic music.

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cokemachineglow

They may not seem on-point at first, occasionally wandering into vaguely tangential realms like a professor who’s a few dropped chalks away from the retirement home, but eventually the genius of it settles in.

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Pitchfork

Nothing to Fear might be the surprise highlight of this collection, even accounting for all the classic stuff on the first disc.

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RapReviews.com

Simply put, it is an essential document of hip hop history, an interesting collection of sound art, and a lot of fun to listen to as well.

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The New York Times

A reasonable first impulse is to try to identify all the sound sources; the inevitable second impulse is to marvel at how well he has chopped up and rearranged them into units of rhythm.

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PopMatters

Luckily for us, Illegal Art has included with this set 2006’s Nothing to Fear a riveting journey by DJ that shows Steinski to be entering his second golden age.

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Alternative Press

'The Motorcade Sped On,' a track that chops up funky beats with verteran newscaster Walter Cronkite reporting the death of President John F. Kennedy, is worth the price of admission alone. [July 2008, p.170]

Blender

Not all connect, but a bonus disc, the soon-vanished 2002 full-length Nothing to Fear, compensates. Buy this before it vanishes, too.

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Dusted Magazine

It's rare that historically important recordings are also essential listening, but this is such a case.

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Rolling Stone

Influence aside, what's just as impressive about this handsome anthology of barely legal rarities is how well tracks work as songs.

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Q Magazine

From Coldcut to DJ Shadow, every rap-era cut-up maestro owes a debt to Steven Stein. [Nov 2008, p.129]

Uncut

CD2 is a quirky new mixtape which proves he's still up to his old tricks. [Dec 2008, p.116]

Under The Radar

As a piece of history, What Does It Mean is unbelievable, but as an album, the familiarity and datedness makes it a dull listening. [Summer 2008]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 15 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

ntretyui f. gave it a10:
This will be in the hip hop hall of fame its classic sample based hip hop which birthed the golden age of hip hop.

Mike J. gave it a3:
Music for reviewers. They've heard everything there is to hear, and they're fucking bored of all of it. So the only thing they can enjoy is a compilation of everything they've heard, which to them is "unique". To the rest of us it's boring. This is why you have great music like Nine Inch Nails and Tool getting average reviews and this getting praised out of existence.

Mycroft W. gave it a9:
Worth your dollar for the Lessons alone. Grab it!

Dom B. gave it a10:
Great body of work. So good I actually went out & bought it!

C M. gave it a3:
I don't understand how this is the top rated record of the year. To me this sounds like a very average Cut Chemist mixtape. The record suffers greatly from all the mix-ins and random clips of dialogue. At almost no point does Steinski allow the melody to stand alone and take the listener anywhere. Good technical mixing and cutting,but the beats are so-so and the melodies suffer from constant and incredibly annoying interruption. By no means should this collection be considered the best album to emerge from 2008.

Sinclair S. gave it a9:
This is absolutely amazing. Like a trip down mix-ology lane. Very Kid-Koalaish although obviously Steinski did it first.

Matt C. gave it a10:
Great beats, great rhymes, great scratches, funky and fun.

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What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective

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