Pitchfork Forkcast: New Music: Lyrics Born [ft. Chali 2Na]: "Hott 2 Deff" [MP3/Stream]

New Music: Lyrics Born [ft. Chali 2Na]: "Hott 2 Deff" [MP3/Stream]

Lyrics Born has thrived as one of the Bay Area's more funk-literate underground MCs, whether he's singing-slash-rapping on Latyrx's 1997 slow ride "Lady Don't Tek No" (a modernized take on Star Quality & Class' fat-bottomed 1981 old-school rap classic "Betcha Got a Dude on the Side"), collaborating with German JBs throwbacks the Poets of Rhythm on Quannum Spectrum highlight "I Changed My Mind", or self-producing bass-heavy jams like "Hott Bizness" and "Callin' Out" for 2003 full-length solo debut Later That Day. Everywhere at Once, Lyrics Born's second album of all-new material, takes the funk one step further by incorporating the live band he's been touring with over the last few years, and early single "Hott 2 Deff" lays down what sounds like a modernized, digitally-enhanced version of the horn-heavy dance grooves Oakland's own Tower of Power specialized in. And even if Born and guest Chali 2Na say a bit more with their flows than they do with their lyrics here, it's hard not to move along-- Chali's his usual attention-grabbing baritone self, and the headliner plays it raspy yet smooth, always able to wrap cleanly around the intricate internal rhymes and sharp hits of assonance he's made his stock in trade for over 15 years.

MP3:> Lyrics Born: "Hott 2 Deff"
[from Everywhere at Once; due 03/18/08 from Anti-]