Search - Chris Thomas King :: Dirty South Hip-Hop Blues

This ambitious, impressive album erases the lines between blues and hip-hop, creating a fusion that's packed with seductive beats, sweetly singing guitars, and lyrics that probe the racial divide and affairs of the heart with equal zeal. For Chris Thomas King--and maybe the genre--it's a major artistic breakthrough. He's stepped from the shadows of tradition to wed Dobros, backwards six-strings, and programmed rhythms, playing and arranging every instrument himself. By the time it's all over, he's sampled Son House, name-checked the likes of Robert Lockwood and the Jim Crow combat anthem "Strange Fruit," and exchanged gunfire with a dirty sheriff in his update of the Robert Johnson legend "Mississippi KKKrossroads." King matches his fellow New Orleanian, the rap emperor Master P, for hard beats and raw violence. Yet he also sculpts funky numbers like "Yo Kiss" to equal the dripping-wet romance of Prince. From the opener "Welcome to Da Jungle," which tells the story of African American culture from the motherland to today, to the end 22 songs later, King pursues any route he dares (including pure acoustic blues) with virtuosity and intelligence. Highly recommended. --Ted Drozdowski