Periodic Table Hip-Hop

Dan La Sac vs. Scroobius Pip CD review

Rarely does an album capture my attention so quickly and cleverly that I have to laugh in surprise. That was exactly my first reaction upon listening to "Development" by Dan La Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip, the second track from their debut "Angles."

This song allows a cockney voice, like an angry audience member, to interrupt MC Pip to tell the group the song is straight crap. Right then MC Pip goes for it and rhymes the periodic table. That's right, I said the periodic table. Now that is some hip hop for you.

The group, hailing from the UK, are relatively unknown here in the states, but with Sage Francis's label - Strange Famous Records - behind them and armed with incredible beats and lyrical acrobatics, they are sure to become a hit here in the states as well.

These tools are sharpened to a knife's edge on songs like "Fixed," a slam on UK hip hop with a sample from one of its biggest hits, and on the first single, "Look For The Woman," we see Pip rhyming about a relationship where he is unhappy but cannot leave because of the love that he feels for the other person.

Sharp stuff, but the sharpest is "Thou Shalt Always Kill," a track where Pip lays down the law for what the music world, hell, what the world as a whole should be and name checks about every single great band of the last 50 years, all of this over one of the greatest minimal beats in recent memory. This is just another piece of evidence that real hip hop is out there, breathing and creating.

Orginally Published in The WSU Signpost 9/12/08