A spoken introduction by Morgan Freeman, guest vocals from Taylor Swift and Chris Brown, and pop melodies from Dr. Luke and OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder ensure that B.o.B's second album is a major event. Strange Clouds is overloaded, from the echoing choruses of "Castles in the Sky" to the booming dubstep of "Strange Clouds," the 8-bit glitch of "Bombs Away" and the acoustic guitar of "So Hard to Breathe." B.o.B worries how his fans say he's changed since his mixtape days, especially on "Where Are You." However, his familiar Southern vocal twang and earnest lyrics shine through the frippery.
Death Grips' Exmilitary was one of the unlikeliest indie hits of 2011, and no one guessed that this defiantly underground digital hardcore/rap trio would sign a major-label deal. But it's tough to catch lightning in a bottle twice. The Money Store is just as ferocious as that first album, but it doesn't have as many memorable songs, and nothing as outstanding as "Guillotine," though "The Fever (Aye Aye)" and "System Blower" are impressive. The group's fortunes rise and fall on Stefan Burnett, a surly punk enigma who claims on "Hacker" that he's "teaching b*tches how to swim."
Quakers features 41 tracks, dozens of indie vets like dead prez and Guilty Simpson, and beats from Geoff Barrow of Portishead, Katalyst and Stuart Matthews. Sequenced like a Madlib beat loop epic, its "donuts" format can be unsatisfying. Great tracks like the "Up the Rovers" instrumental are so fleeting that they beg more development, while other cuts like King Magnetic's boorish "The Turk" seem extraneous. However, there are many voices like Coin Locker Kid ("Get Live") and FC the Truth ("Chicken Livers") that fulfill Quakers' promise of wicked randomness and musical discovery.
THEESatisfaction flooded their native Seattle with self-released music well before their work on Shabazz Palaces' critically-acclaimed Black Up led to a record deal. Like Black Up, the two women's awE NaturalE presents alternative soul mixed with spiritual raps. "Leave your face at the door, turn off your swag," they offer on "QueenS" and its deep-house groove; "naturalE" has the kind of rhythmic synth-funk popularized by Sa-Ra. These 13 tracks often end abruptly, as if in mid-sentence, and are puzzle pieces for a portrait of two seductively enigmatic Northwest bohemians.
Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music is a curveball even by the standards of a career marked by numerous twists. But it's deeper than a blog-rap gimmick. El-P curbs his skronk/noise tendencies and adds bass bottom to his tracks, while Killer Mike spits rhymes with clarity and mostly without the dumb thug fantasies that sometimes cloud his vision. (The clever drug-dealer story "JoJo's Chillin'" is an exception.) The result is a satisfying blend of unique styles, Mike's drawling aggression to El's industrial funk, and songs like "Willie Burke Sherwood" and "Big Beast."
Everyone loves Nicki Minaj: She's a self-described Harajuku girl with a potty mouth and a dementedly theatrical fashion sense to match. But do we love her music? Like her 2010 debut, Pink Friday, the new Roman Reloaded straddles her audience's demands for both face-melting rhymes and pop confections. The former camp gets the "HOV Lane" (as in Jay-Z, aka "Jay Hova") and ciphers with Rick Ross, Cam'Ron and Nas; pop fans get clubby house tracks made by Lady Gaga producer RedOne, including the dance-pop hit "Starships." Blending these two identities into a satisfying whole proves elusive.
"Don't worry if I really bucked a nine," warns Lushlife on "Anthem," the gloriously psychedelic centerpiece of his second album. But questions of whether this Philadelphia artist is an authentic hip-hop artist or not are moot. Imaginatively, he intersperses old Kool Moe Dee routines, French dialogue and Main Ingredient samples into woozily blissful beats, while reminiscing of growing up in his native Philly. The music is so pretty that it overshadows his sometimes awkward rhymes. Cities Aviv, STS and Heems of Das Racist add guest vocals on this underground gem.
E-40 continues his post-Warner flood with this ridiculous three-disc four-hour-plus set. To call it excessive and uneven misses the point; this is E-40 feeding the streets until they burst. Some highlights include "Function," a hard-hitting blapper with rising Bay Area rapper Iamsu on the hook, a long-awaited collaboration with the Hieroglyphics crew on "40 & Hiero," "Bust Moves," "Fast Lane," "I'm Laced" and many more. The tone varies from 40 Water's patented mob music sound to R&B-flavored tracks like "Salute You" and "Memory Lane" that encourage positivity and spirituality.
Cancer 4 Cure revisits familiar territory: knotty raps on urban paranoia and police state tactics, and "constellation funk" that increasingly resembles industrial prog-rock. It takes multiple listens to process, and the payoff isn't as tremendous as past classics like Fantastic Damage. Still, there's something to be said for virtually inventing your own hip-hop sub-genre -- his closest precedent may be Nine Inch Nails. The clear storylines of "Tougher Colder Killer" and "For My Upstairs Neighbor" have a velocity that the rest of El's murky yet memorably abrasive album sometimes lacks.
First Serve is an odd concept album from De La Soul's Posdnuos and Dave and French producers 2 & 4 (aka Chokolate and Khalid). The two rappers star as Jacob "Pop" Life and Deen Witter, two New York kids that sign a record deal with Goon Time Records (after a hilarious cameo from Dave as "Ma Witter"), blow up on "We Made It," and then nearly break up on "The Book of Life" before squashing their beef on "The Top Chefs." First Serve is a silly little story, but Pos and Dave are clearly having fun with it, and their enthusiasm makes it easy to overlook 2 & 4's humdrum beats.
"Our records sell out while some of y'all will sit on the shelf," rhymes Krizz Kaliko on "Dancin with Myself." The Strange Music camp has sold millions with little publicity -- though Tech N9ne's 2011 album All 6's and 7's got plenty of press -- by appealing to an audience that loves thug weirdoes like Insane Clown Posse and Odd Future. Krizz doesn't have the same machine-gun flow as Tech, who easily outshines Krizz with his guest spots on "Kill Sh*t," "Spaz" and others. But Tech's protégé has gonzo appeal, too, from the '60s soul parody "Kali Baby" to the sex-with-an-alien ballad "Species."
