Playtight by Foreign Legion

Bay Area's hippest hoppers, Foreign Legion, are back with their second full-length album, Playtight. Foreign Legion is DJ Design on the decks and production and Prozack ("the kid in the cowboy shirt and nerd glasses") and Marc Stretch ("a real playa from the Himalayas") on the mics, but they're much more than the sum of their parts. The MCs play off of each other as if they've been friends since childhood; in the parlance of the genre, "they got jokes." Luckily, Design matches each funny punch line with a funky bass line. Design's tight, bouncy production helps the group live up to its name on this record, lacing the listener with loops that range from Latin to Jamaican to Brazilian and beyond. On "It's Working," he gets things moving with a tango piano line, shakers, and timbales, and on "Party Crashers," the funky Cuban-esque beat is the foundation for Stretch and Prozack's dissertation on how to get in where you don't fit in.

On "Here We Go Again," a lavish track with acoustic guitars, a warm organ, and a softly sung chorus, Prozack sums up their mentality while separating themselves from the backpacker masses: "Ain't nothin' too deep, rhymin' over cool beats/It's just music, if it's hot, it's hot/This underground hip-hop versus rap shit has gotta stop/A lot of pop rap radio sucks, but underground rappers, we complain too much." The only complaints FL has are about running out of booze or getting fronted on by females, and they're always delivered cleverly. It all comes together on their single, "Happy Drunk," an uptempo drinking anthem joint with a spelling bee chorus and pounding bass line that has Tha Liks wishing they'd come up with it first.

Just when you think the jokes might begin to wear thin, they show signs of maturity on "How Do It Feel," a lush-stringed production about their personal shortcomings and crosses. A funnier variation on a similar theme is "Voodoo Star," a Stevie Wonderful funky joint/tale of born losers. Not to be missed is the closing song, "Roommate Joint," a perfectly-penned rant about cohabitation over an old school bass line.

Foreign Legion is recognized as a genre-defining group that belong to the era of hip hop which launched artists such as Dilated Peoples, Slum Village and the Lootpack.

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