Coming straight outta the rough'n'tumble surroundings of Minneapolis/St. Paul, the
Rhymesayers
clique is slowly but surely putting Minnesota on the
hip-hop
map. OK, so the frozen lands that gave listeners
Prince
and
Morris Day & the Time
may seem like a fairly unlikely setting for the next
hotbed, but you can't deny the talent the area's been bringing to the table. First,
Eyedea
won the country's biggest MC battle with a brilliant display of freestyle ability, now
Atmosphere
's latest album states the case that there are some serious skills in the Great White North. The group is fronted by
Slug
, whose densely packed rhymes on the opening
"Onemosphere"
"The Bass & the Movement"
showcase a clever lyrical flow that recalls early
De La Soul
if they'd been produced by
El-P
. On
"Hair"
and the title track, the MC exposes a refreshing sense of self-deprecating realism all too often lacking among the current
scene's posturing poseurs. Though the
lo-fi
D.I.Y. production slows the momentum on a handful of tracks, when
's rhymes and producer
Ant
's beats click, the results are as good as
underground hip-hop
gets. ~ Bret Love