Pitchfork

Hip-hop isn't dead, Toronto rapper Kardinal Offishall proclaims at the start of his new mixtape with Curtis Sparks, Do the Right Thing. So why is the mixtape 90s-themed? Probably just for fun, because Offishall's "Graveyard Shift" kills the dead-or-not debate even deader, with the grim, vaguely unreal atmosphere of those hours when late nights becomes early morning. Akon raps. Akon also sings, but we've heard that before.

Offishall begins by painting a Michael Moore-worthy picture of workaday nights: "Full of crushed dreams and nightmares/ Baby mothers can't afford to pay that daycare" while Akon's sung hook-- "six in the morning"-- brings to mind Young Jeezy's Timbaland-produced "3 A.M." No Tim here, but both these guys are better rappers.

[from the Do the Right Thing mixtape; free for download here]