Kidz in the Hall, School Was My Hustle

In this age of the download, when economics make any halfway point between a MySpace page and a mega-bucks marketing budget seem pointless, independent-label hip-hop has been in the doldrums. Yet Rawkus, the biggest name in US indie rap, are staging a comeback, and they are pinning their hopes on rapper Naledge and DJ Double O. The label has chosen wisely: the duo's debut is a classic. A concise 45 minutes long, School Was My Hustle echoes Naledge's Chicago contemporaries Lupe Fiasco and Kanye West, and the pair's decision to keep all the work in-house means the album knits together like a golden-age EPMD album. Lush, sampled loops (from the Shaft in Africa soundtrack, and a Billy Cobham jazz-funk riff, among others) support lyrics of streetwise introspection and intellectual defiance.