I’ve long fancied myself a connoisseur, if you will, of underground hip hop, but though I’ve long been aware of him and the label he co-founded, I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard anything by Sole. From what I’ve been able to learn, this is his second foray into “rap as journalism” and applying the Situationist “detournement” concept of “turning expressions of the capitalist system against itself” to hip hop by repurposing mainstream rap jams for political ends. Busdriver, B. Dolan, Mac Lethal, Ceschi Ramos, Kool A.D. from Das Racist, Cadalack Ron, and others join in the shenanigans, providing a hodge-podge of different delivery styles to contrast and compliment Sole’s “stream-of-consciousness to the point of occasionally eschewing rhyming altogether” tack here. When it works, solid beats deliver withering political commentary—something that, these days, seems to have long been bred out of the mainstream strain of what was once a revolutionary, topical, and vital musical genre. –jimmy (DIY Bandits)