Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

I didn't have a lot of hope for ANIMAL by (S)he. I mean, the concept just looked wrong... Three black female singers and a couple of white guys who look like they hang out with your nerdy little brother. I thought, “Uh oh, Destiny’s Child meets Erasure.” I was wrong. ...

Before we go any further, what is about to pass might mean a little more if I'm up front with you and say that, prior to hearing ME, MYSELF & I, there wasn’t much Fat Joe being played at casa de Hartlaub. There was no particular problem, other than the ...

There is no question that Asians are underrepresented in hip-hop. You’ve got Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Middle Easterners…but very few Asians. If you think of Asian influence in hip-hop at all, you probably think of, and only of, Jin. Jin is from New York, and had a run on 106th & PARK several years ...

ODDISEE PRESENTS FOOT IN THE DOOR ticked me off, royally, before I even got it into the CD player. I noticed while scanning the list of 34 tracks on the jewel case that 7 of them had asterisks (for those of you who have been subjected to public school subsequent ...

The Sound Providers are a production duo out of San Diego who have dropped a couple of long players and a bunch of 12-inch discs over the last few years, initially with rapper Profile and then on their own. Their new disc, TRUE INDEED, is a collaboration with Florida rapper ...

Tech N9ne has been around for a long time, falling in and out of deals that took more than they gave. He started his own label, Strange Music, some years ago, and began dropping his own tracks as well as those of others from his native St. Louis. He is ...

The Devil’z Rejects consists of Bomshot and Jus Allah, and if the name of the group and of the project, NECRONOMICON, didn't clue you, it is a sure bet that the gents on this CD did not put any time in on a public job where their primary duty was ...