Platform

L.A.'s Dilated Peoples get back to b-boy basics with their long-awaited major-label debut. Longtime darlings of hip-hop's underground, Dilated stays true to their roots with The Platform, combining spare, churning bass hooks with Babu's epic turntable episodes. Guest artists like Tha Alkaholiks, Planet Asia, and Freestyle Fellowships' Aceyalone add fuel to the flames set ablaze by the straight-spittings of MCs Iriscience and Evidence. Buoyantly braggadocious, the fellas swap positive abstract poetics with swagger and grace--rhymes like "I never got redemption from an honorable mention / So my lyrics hug the bat with the tightest suspension" thump chests as much as they feed souls. Their constant boasting is also the album's only setback, as all the self-lauding can, and sometimes does, get tired. --Sylvia W. Chan