![[album cover]](http://static.okayplayer.com/images/stories/reviews/concretes.jpg)
You know those words that you’ve heard but you aren’t exactly sure what they mean, like “pedagogue”? For me, “soporific” has always been one of those words. Thankfully, the dictionary provided me with a straightforward definition (“sleep-inducing”), which makes it the perfect word to describe Layyourbattleaxedown, the latest from the Concretes. This album is soporific as shit. It’s the musical equivalent of watching golf.
![[album cover]](http://static.okayplayer.com/images/stories/reviews/jameshardway.jpg)
There’s just some music that exists. It’s not offensively bad, nor is it excessively good. It’s just kind of there. And while it’s playing, it doesn’t really impress anyone enough to pay closer attention and it certainly doesn’t disgust anyone enough to shut it off.
![[album cover]](http://static.okayplayer.com/images/stories/reviews/apsci.jpg)
Hip hop’s blending into other genres used to be a cause to cringe; we’ve survived Fred Durst trying to rhyme, wacktacular scratching over a trip-hop landscape, ill-fated college rock and hip hop collabs (remember R.E.M & KRS-1 together?), but finally, we’re starting to see some mind-melds that actually work.
![[album cover]](http://static.okayplayer.com/images/stories/reviews/grownfolks_front.jpg)
Over the past few years, mixtapes have become some of the more influential promotional tools in hip hop. Artists now use mixtapes to build anticipation for upcoming releases by leaking a couple album tracks, adding some b-sides, freestyles and remixes, then throwing on a few posse cuts for good measure. In The Grown Folks’ case, their mixtape not only builds anticipation for their full-length debut, Child’s Play, but serves as a formal introduction to the duo: Virginia natives, Micsource and Dox-1.
![[album cover]](http://static.okayplayer.com/images/stories/reviews/prefuseEPimage.jpg)
Prefuse 73: Reads the Books finds everyone’s favorite expatriate DJ at it again: it meaning hating bass, liking obscure loops and loving the vosotros verb form. The eight-track conceptual EP, however, doesn’t feature any of the embedded, minimized verses or intrepid scratching that has experimental hip-hop purists drooling like corrupt boxing promoters to extol Prefuse (Scott Herren) the next great heavyweight champ (which is just a nice way of saying the next DJ Shadow).
![[album cover]](http://static.okayplayer.com/images/stories/reviews/kidzinthehall.jpg)
The Kidz In The Hall are two true-school representatives, literally. The duo met at a University of Pennsylvania talent show in 2000. Since then, both Naledge (Chicago lyricist/MC) and Double-O (New Jersey producer/DJ) have united in a fashion similar to Gangstarr or Pete Rock & CL Smooth.
![[album cover]](http://static.okayplayer.com/images/stories/reviews/cons.jpg)
A Tribe Called Quence mixtape is a 14-step program toward understanding the Consequence timeline. Albeit another prequel for his forthcoming debut LP, the mixtape works well to define where Consequence came up from.
![[album cover]](http://static.okayplayer.com/images/stories/reviews/hotkarl.jpg)
The problem with novelty shit is that it only makes one round in my CD player. Satirical MC Hot Karl exercises some skill, but wastes it on trivial, novel nonsense (“Nothing sounds gayer than songs by John Mayer”) that will never, ever get a second spin in my living room.
![[album cover]](http://static.okayplayer.com/images/stories/reviews/shawn_hewitt.jpg)
Nothing spectacular. Nothing new. Nothing groundbreaking. Nothing… blue? Okay, I couldn’t find a closer, but you get my point. Or at least you will after listening to Shawn Hewitt & The National Strike’s six-song EP The Soft Society.
![[album cover]](http://static.okayplayer.com/images/stories/reviews/anhamsoul_.jpg)
In the relentless drive for what’s “next”, listeners rarely look backward. We want what’s new, not what’s been passed up! But hold up, check your rearview for a second. See that back there? That’s Anthony Hamilton’s Soulife, his long-shelved Atlantic debut.
![[album cover]](http://static.okayplayer.com/images/stories/reviews/skopic.jpg)
Skopic, or Max Braverman, or the world’s latest genius solo bedroom producer/multi-instrumentalist, has a knack for weaseling his way out easy typecasting. He’ll do the dark hip-hop instrumental thing, but quicker than you can say, “oh shit homeboy’s an RJD2 clone,” he’ll shift into some altogether quirkier territory. His debut project has him vacillating between brooding and goofy, subdued and funky, and, besides a few slow spots, employs the (Mad) Skillz head-nod factor consistently.
![[album cover]](http://static.okayplayer.com/images/stories/reviews/rockers.jpg)
It’s not quite the subculture masterpiece represented by The Warriors or The Last Dragon, but Rockers features charismatic performances, overflows with simmering reggae music, and grooves on an enjoyable if uncomplicated plot. If you want a complex storyline go check out Memento; if you have any taste for reggae music and seeing a cinematic slice of Jamaican culture, Rockers comes proper.
