September 18, 2002

SINCE REACHING MY first anniversary with this column I've been thinking about the records I cover and the indie hip-hop trends they reflect. Though the average no-shirt-wearing, Roc-A-Fella jockin', KMEL-lovin' hip-hop and R&B fan may not notice, Correct Techniques actually covers many of the hottest 12-inch singles percolating in the underground. For example, I've been playing Mos Def, Diverse, and producer Prefuse 73's "Wylin' Out" (Chocolate Industries, www.chocolateindustries.com) to death like everyone else. It's an amazing collabo between two great MCs and one of the game's best producers, taking you back to the days when Mos Def was killing it for Rawkus. It's got an equally sharp remix by RJD2 on the B-side, to boot. Then there's "Respect Life" backed with "The Late Show" and "Where Would You Be" (Sunmoon, www.electriccompanycrew.com) by the Electric Company, an all-star group comprised of Boston MCs Anonymous, Ra, former Mission:/Crown City Rockers member Moe Pope (who also painted the single's memorable cover art), Dagha, and breakout artist of the year Insight on the boards. The "Respect Life" instrumental, with its swinging horns and midtempo groove, is particularly sweet. Both of these singles, particularly "Wylin' Out," are blowing up on college and indie hip-hop radio stations across the country.

So what are some of the musical fads everybody's jockin'? Well, the good news is that producers aren't trying to make beats like DJ Premier's anymore. Also, anyone who's been to a rap show in the past year will tell you that backpackers don't wear backpacks anymore, because they're too cumbersome to move around the club with. The bad news is that, in an effort to dispel the backpacker myth, underground MCs are getting more thugged-out than ever, except they're dropping their rhymes over old-school breaks instead of the Neptunes. Case in point: Danger Mouse's "Taking Care of Business" backed with "Live on Both Sides" and "Don't Do Drugs" (Lex, www.lexrecords.com). On "Don't Do Drugs," guest MC Jemini the Gifted One plays the drug dealer serving kids "at the university / studying heavily and partying heartily." Jemini's rap is no different from Eminem's and Ja Rule's hip-pop endorsements for ecstasy and cocaine, but the big-band sampled loop he spits it over makes "Don't Do Drugs" sound hella funny.

Other than that, nothing much has changed. Stones Throw is still a fan favorite, as evinced by the furor surrounding its recent, limited-edition white label EP (www.stonesthrow.com), full of rarities from Peanut Butter Wolf and Charizma, Homeless Derelix, Madlib, and Quasimoto that you might be able to find at various San Francisco record shops, depending on when you read this. A less celebrated but equally potent Los Angeles hip-hop label is Sub-Level Epidemic (www.belowsurface.com), which just released a new 7-inch single by producer OD, "Percussion Precaution" backed with "Rush." Check "Rush" for its charming, if eerie, children's chorus.

As stagnant as this genre may at times seem, I still manage to find artists making great music, like Chicago's Molemen. This three-man production team has recently been on a tear, producing two solid singles this month: the Locked EP (Molemen, www.molemen.com) featuring three tracks from their upcoming album, Killing Fields, and Infinito's "Qualified Professional" 7-inch backed with "Right at 6" and "Shadow Hours" (Nephew of Frank, www.mp3.com/infinito1). What are you listening to?