1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

Finally, the 21st century gets a classical-music artist befitting the times: information- inundated, busied, riddled by ADD. Connecting blue-haired symphony subscribers to indie-rock bedheads, the twentysomething New York composer is all over the place on his second disc.

Taking charge of his late father's crew, the youngest son of Afro- beat superstar Fela Anikulapo Kuti strikes a commanding pose on his swaggering debut. Yet the 25-year-old scion often seems restrained, suggesting a rude noise being toned down for polite society.

"If I rhymed about home and got descriptive / I'd make 50 Cent look like Limp Bizkit," claims this Somali expat on "What's Hardcore," a bleak but bouncy throwdown from his debut album. The dude isn't kidding: K'naan grew up in the war-ravaged streets of Mogadishu, before emigrating to Toronto as a teenager.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

Once touted by rap critics as the female Eminem, teen prodigy Invincible has grown into a compelling and fiercely political artist. On her inspired debut, the now 27-year-old underground MC describes her native Detroit with skilled perception, pointing out its class warfare and gentrification ("Deuce/Ypsi" and "Locusts") and grieving the late hip-hop icon J Dilla ("In the Mourning").

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

Save for the brilliant 2003 single "Find a Way," feathery Detroit crooner Dwele is mostly known as an R&B supplicant on rap hits like Kanye West's "Flashing Lights" and Common's "The People." But even if his third album doesn't become a long-overdue breakout, he still triumphs modestly on this collection of tracks glowing with intelligent warmth.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Login or Register to rate this item.

This California quartet treat the Ramones, the Runaways, and their forebears like piñatas: Crack 'em open and wait for the goodies to fall out.