Underground hip-hop history is being re-written monthly at Lex Records and a whole new team has assembled on the bench. Forget what you know about Pharoahe Monch being the shining light of the Rawkus Records backpacker revolution because it's the other half of Nineties crew Organized Konfusion, Prince Poetry, that these 21st Century backpackers are checking for. And the talent lined up by Lex in the supporting roles is a who's who of current underground alumni: Madlib, Danger Mouse, J-Zone and MF Doom amongst them.
Most of the attention will, inevitably, go to the Beatles-bootlegging producer Danger Mouse but anyone that has witnessed the collaborative chemistry of Madlib and MF Doom on this year's "Madvillainy" will testify that there are greater talents at work here. Madlib's finest contribution gives the album its title track, a crawling, exotic beat that owes something to Ghostface's mighty "Ironman" album. MF Doom pairs up with Po on Danger Mouse's espionage spoofing skitter beat, "Social Distortion". Naturally, Doom walks away with the album's most captivating verses.
Prince Po's own beats are the album's clearest link back to his history and most stay firmly rooted in the clean loops of the mid-nineties. Perversely these most uninspiring musical moments showcase Po's rhyme style better than the dust encrusted grooves elsewhere. It's left to Richard X to bring Po kicking and screaming into an electronic future with the synth'n'bass drama of "Hold Dat" and - much better - the Nightmares On Wax-sampling remix of the track that closes the album. Slowing one of Warp Records (Lex's parent label) earliest, seminal electronic releases to a crawl he seems to tie up all the loose ends that such unusual bed-fellows - Lex/Warp, rave/hip-hop, Richard X/Prince Po - throw up.
Inevitably, though, this winds up an album of deeply schizophrenic nature, by turns radical and utterly reactionary. At its best, when Doom, Madlib and Danger Mouse are at the creative controls, it lights up with the energy of a bunch of artists on a creative roll. Despite the fine rhymes he scatters throughout the record, it remains to be seen whether Po will rise to stand tall amongst his peers.
