Hello World

This is one of those albums that you want to love, but that keeps sabotaging itself just when it starts flirting with brilliance. It's never less that fun and it really does flirt with brilliance every so often, but then another overly repetitive chorus comes in to spoil the fun, or another blurt of preadolescent sexism. The line between "irreverent" and "annoyingly juvenile" can be exceedingly fine, and you have to say this for DMG$: they're not afraid to risk stepping over that line, for which they deserve some credit. DMG$ is the MC duo of Coool Dundee and Trak Bully, and XRabit is a Berlin-by-way-of-London electro hip-hop producer who provides the beats and loops and keeps things interesting when the MCs are slacking off. It's XRabit who provides the lurching yet strangely graceful groove on "Damaged Good$," the light, jaunty ambience on "Are We Friends," and the swaying funk on "Trak's Promise." When DMG$ are on their game they're seriously impressive: the nimble wordplay on "Love of My Night" is top-notch though the song eventually sags into blocky chanting. "Thunderkats" is seriously obnoxious, but "My Stereo" (as in "she's gotta be feelin' my stereo") is a hoot. When XRabit flirts with reggae ("Are We Friends") and jungle ("My Stereo"), you may not even notice the lyrics at all. About half the time, that's really just as well.