The best thing about British hip-hop is that, for the better part of this decade, most people had no clue what it was. It sounded very little like American hip-hop, placing more emphasis on urban dissonance than any of its stateside contemporaries.

What Massive Attack, Tricky, Portishead and the rest of the Bristol crew were doing in one of many British hip-hop communities was so unique that it needed a new name; hip-hop just wasn't trippy enough to describe this new hybrid. It was too eclectic, too spacial, and too androgynous to be called hip-hop. Listen to Portishead DJ Andy Smith's recent mix CD The Document-- it features Tom Jones, the Jungle Brothers and the James Gang all sharing speakers in the same set-- and you'll hear why British hip-hop is such an anomaly to the DAT disciples of Dre. Britons have figured it out, and 4,000 miles from the Bronx, no less: it ain't about the Benjamins, it's about the beats and the rhymes.

Lewis Parker knows this a bit too well. Parker can cut together a rhythm backing every bit as atmospheric as his patrons in Massive Attack (who founded Melankolic, the label to which Parker is signed). The Mid-Eastern flavored woodwinds and suspenseful strings of "Crusades" are otherworldly. The acid tunnel feedback that spirals through "Shadows of Autumn" is edgily offset by serviceable scratching-- a combination that's neurotically downbeat. It all sounds indescribably British, which would be enough if Parker didn't open his mouth.

Parker's apocalyptic vision owes more than a little to Killah Priest, but unlike the Priest, Parker isn't visionary enough to keep things interesting. Parker gets too caught up lyrically with railing about "charlatan" gangstas and B-Boys. He seems to want to be both a horseman of the apocalypse and a ghetto artist, dropping knowledge with his mic in his hand. It may work for Killah Priest, but Parker's one- step- removed version is false prophecy.

Still, Parker is doing something that many American hip-hop DJs are too macho to attempt-- making music that isn't tied up in manliness and materialism. But Parker's ethereal quality almost seems beyond his control. He seems to be trying too hard to emulate American posturing, and in so doing, he exposes just how British he really is.

-Shan Fowler