Expansion Team [Explicit]

Having threatened on their debut, The Platform, to bring the sound of the underground to the masses, Dilated Peoples hones their old-school hooks and breaks on Expansion Team to ensnare purists and the mainstream alike. Over downtempo beats, eerie Hitchcock strings ("Clock Work"), dinner jazz ("Pay Attention!"), '70s cop-show horns ("Hard Hitters"), and DJ Babu's turntable gymnastics ("Dilated Junkies"), their exhausting couplets wage war on the talents of fellow hip-hop crews while simultaneously validating their boasts of rhyme supremacy. Yet it's the instantly addictive slow roller "Worst Come to Worst" that best proves their point. Along with the "nobody comes close" taunts, there's a lot of regulation second-album material: "Trade Money" assures that success isn't without its downsides ("Since last year I've accumulated more money / On top of that I got a lot of people acting funny"), "Proper Propaganda" has a pop at the media, and there are countless reassurances that success doesn't mean principles will be compromised. Their messages may not be new, but the Dilated Peoples' genius is delivering them with simmering tunes that make them worth hearing again. --Dan Gennoe