Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip

Angles (Strange Famous)

“Hip hop is art. Don’t make another pop hit, be smart,” is the guiding credo of this Essex, UK, duo, and Angles is nothing if not smart. Pip, who nicked his name from Edward Lear, kicks it Oscar Wilde-style and skewers all with a rapier wit that gives this debut the instant, gluey replay status of Grandmaster Flash’s classic “The Message.” Pip’s thoroughly literate rapping runs the gamut from pithy wit (“Fixed”) to esoterically omniscient street theologies such as “Letter From God to Man” and from the stunningly emotional, rain-on-your-windscreen sucker punch of the Rashômon-esque title track to the epic, 11-plus-minute soliloquy of closer “Waiting for the Beat to Kick In.” And it’s all good. “Thou Shalt Always Kill” is the final word on the dangers of musical idolatry and obscurantist Sonic Youth references. Mics down, this is the finest UK hip-hop debut since the Streets’ Original Pirate Material and far more clever by half. (Dan & Scroob drop on in the Beauty Bar Tuesday, Sept. 16.)

***.5

This article appears in September 12 • 2008.

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