The ever- prophetic Brother One may as well have been talking about the current state of rap music when he decried the practice of "Talking Loud and Saying Nothing." Indeed, while the last two years have seen the dramatic rise of the DJ in progressive hip-hop circles, the MC has presented to the world a more retarded artistic development. Let's face it: rappers have been seriously backsliding, the result of consumers demanding too little. Why struggle to say something original when laziness is paying the bills? It's reached a point where the subject matter of rap has slid into a kind of existential void, akin to Escher's drawings of endlessly sloping staircases, where all the rhymes are about having more rhymes. Boasts not longer require genuine achievement, now the commentary is what's being commented on, and the effect is a music offering a real- time critique of itself. And this emptiness of subject matter is what is killing rap music. Where have you gone, Carlton Ridenhour?

Which brings us to this record by a loose collective known as the "Flipsquad Allstar DJs." The DJs in question are primarily New York- based producers like Funkmaster Flex, Mark Ronson and DJ Enuff. The backing tracks they create are predictable mid-tempo grooves with nods to the Wu sound and a hint of the West Coast g-funk cheesiness that's been too big for too long. Though the collective is named for the men on the decks, the music they're pumping out is generic enough that it's barely noticable, and the focus automatically turns to the many "featured" MCs. Rapping over the by- the- numbers beats are a bunch of no-namers (Canibus and Biz Markie excepted) who, in this crazy industry, are likely millionaires many times over. And the unbelievably tired "stacking riches/ sexing bitches" schtick comprises most of the lyrical fodder. There's nothing here that'll surprise, challenge or move you in any way. In other words, the album's a sure hit.

The exception to all of this are the two hilarious cuts by the absurdly out- of- place Biz Markie. Here's a man with the temerity to rap "You're dithhpichable" in a spot-on Daffy Duck voice. Here's a man who knows that his A-B-C is D-E-F. Here's a man unafraid of the opinions of his peers, who actually entertains instead of talking about how entertaining he is. Mr. Markie, what are you doing running with these bums? What if we were to judge a man by the company he keeps? Et tu, Biz?

-Mark Richard-San

Funkmaster Flex + Canibus: "Seriously"

[MPEG Low Quality]
[MPEG High Quality]
[Real Audio Stream]