Many attempted to write off HBMS as a joke after the release of their 1999 debut ‘So… How’s Your Girl?’ And it was a joke, but not in the way you might think. The brainchild of Chest Rockwell (Prince Paul) and Nathaniel Merriwether (Dan the Automator), the duo, with an all-star support cast pushed the creative frontier of hip-hop as far as it would then naturally go. This 4-tracker, from their just released sophomore collection, ‘White People’, again oozes originality, humour and flair and finally erases the line that separates musical genres once and for all. Old skool hip-hop meets new wave rock on ‘Rock And Roll (Could Never Hip-Hop Like This)’, featuring Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda as well as Lord Finesse, Jazzy Jay and Grand Wizard Theodore – where elements of Fatboy Slim, Dido and the Darkness are rolled into one. The multi-genre current single, ‘The World’s Gone Mad’, finds Del The Funky Homosapien and Barrington Levy ruff it up on a shanty skit featuring Franz Ferdinand’s lead vocalist Alex Kapranos, while RZA spits verse alongside the Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodriguez on ‘A Day In The Life Of’. Producer Prince Paul enlists his De La Soul buddies on the wordy ‘If It Wasn’t For You’ to round off an album guaranteed to win fans from both sides of the tracks.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Lewis Dene