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From her brilliantly loopy 2006 opus Olesi: Fragments of an Earth to a scene- stealing cameo on Erykah Badu's New Amerykah: Part One, Muldrow has artfully merged progressive soul with Africanist spirituality.

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Nurtured by Los Angeles' near-mythical underground scene centered around the Good Life Café and Project Blowed, Abstract Rude boasts an indelible, intoxicating voice. He raps and sings with equal verve, and his deep baritone resonates with rhythmic power. So why does he saddle himself with rehashed West Coast bleats for his first album in six years?

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MF Doom has always adopted a marvel–sized supervillain persona. But lately, life has imitated comic-book art, from outrageous rumors of his death to charges that he's used lip-synching impersonators at his concerts. On Born Like This, the recluse also known as Daniel Dumile doesn't apologize for past misdeeds.

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Scott Herren's fifth album as glitch-hop pioneer Prefuse 73 opens and ends on familiar ground: the melodic, heavily modulated "Periodic Measurements of Infrequent Smiles" and "Periodic Measurements of Infrequent Frowns." Between those tracks, he unfurls more than two dozen other bits, from the stuttering arpeggios of "Dec.

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Club rap, with its leg-humping sexuality and boorish booty beats, seems fairly passé at this point. But the electro-fueled Toronto duo Thunderheist manage to pump life into the exhausted subgenre. On their debut, Isis sings and rhymes with equal verve, transforming from disco diva ("Nothing 2 Step 2") to coke-snorting hussy ("Freddie") to seductive jailbait ("Sweet 16").

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Aceyalone's ninth solo album is one of the year's most unexpected hip-hop pleasures, with the Los Angeles MC switching gears from his inventive and hugely influential rapid-fire rhyme style. On The Lonely Ones, he pays loving homage to doo-wop and Motown, spinning lyrics about civil rights ("Power to the People"), partying, and chasing women ("The Lonely Ones," "Step Up").