Most heads are familiar with Pete Rock collaborative albums with Ini, Deda and CL Smooth so I wanted to check out some of his leading projects from the 90s and 00s.

• Soul Survivor (1998) - Standout album, harder hitting songs as well as some very chill hard music, highlights are Half Man Half Amazing (produced by Pete Rock's brother I think), Tru Master, Respect Mine, Take Your Time, Da Two and Strange Fruit.

• Petestrumentals (2001 but recorded in the 90s). On a first listen found this a struggle to get through based on the repetitiveness of the tracks and their lengths, but I keep coming back to a lot of these tracks and they've just become more addictive, beautiful and deep with more revisits. Nothin' Lesser is the best song with vocals. In terms of instrumentals seek out A Little Soul, Play Dis Only At Night, Something Funky, For The People, Smooth Sailing, Pete's Jazz, The Boss, Walk On By and Take the D Train. I think this might be my favourite instrumental hip hop album now or tied with Samurai Champloo soundtrack.

• Soul Survivor 2 (2004) - this album has a lot of standouts and great features like the first, but overall the best feels more like tier-B Pete Rock rather than the best production. The three songs with CL Smooth are worth hearing as well as Just Do It, Give It To Ya, Da Villa.

• NY's Finest (2008) - Not too impressed with this but has two of the hardest songs from these albums - 914 and Questions, definitely recommend those.