He's called the 'Brian Enno of rap', but we suspect that he's also influenced by Kraftwerk, (more recently) Radiohead, Aphex Twin and tons of movies (David Lynch -or John Carpenter even?-). M.Fusion, affiliate of the Shape Shifters, is not your average hip-hop producer, can we call this hip-hop?

While The Alkaholiks are rhyming about booze consumption, Mad Kap follows Cypress Hill’s footsteps; promoting weed smoking. Mad Kap’s music also has a bigger jazz touch to it with lots of horns. Almost every song is followed by an intermezzo, consisting of instrumental pieces and funny skits.

Three years after Dilla’s passing, we’ve been able to witness a lot of dedications and homages. Artists that stood close to him, artists that felt connected with him, they all wanted to pay tribute. But actually it was really waiting for Madlib’s eulogy...

No need to introduce Madlib, unless you’ve been in a distant galaxy for the last ten or something years, although I wouldn’t bet my VW Polo on it if they haven’t heard of him yet over there too.

The album takes you away on a journey thru unconquered paradises 'to a land of milk and honey with the swirls where reckless naked girls get necklaces and pearls' Doom’s lyricism has never been tighter than on this album.

Maestro Fresh Wes isn’t a double bass player like the cover suggests, he’s one hell of an MC. From where??? straight outta Canada. Naaah, this kid…? Yep, he’s from Canada!

While some bass lines and kicks sound a little artificial, this album has crazy creative production and ditto scratches. The MC’s kick nice, braggadocios lyrics, but nothing more than that, it’s nice to listen to but it won’t get you excited, the production on the other hand… leave out the few technical shortcomings and you can say it’s top notch.

The album is pretty much a collection of tales from the hood. Highlights on the album are the title song 'Birth of the Ghetto Child' with a nice piano lick, heavy bass drum and the infamous 'Life as a shorty' Inspectah Deck-sample. Hypnotic, Pete Rock funk is '4 My Shorties'.

Let it be clear; this album is about girls, girls, girls and havin fun. And how refreshing it is, to hear an album with nuthin but funny punch lines and dope, boom bap beats, prepared by today's most boom bappest of producers Apathy, Celph Titled and JJ Brown.

The songs are perfectly composed, they have a nice built-up, rich of instruments and/or vocals and therefore contain lots of variation. When listening to the album, you automatically think of reputated beatsmiths like DJ Shadow and RJD2.

With lush raps wrapped in Afrocentrism, inspired on the legacy of the forefighters of anti-slavery (namechecking Nat Turner a.o.), African liberation and revolution, Infinito2017 comes as Marcellous Lovelace over an extremely jazzy production by illustrious producers Cool D and Marc B.

The Avengers’ underground sound and Maylay’s down-to-earth lyricism go hand in hand and once again, it is proven that overseas collabos is the success formula of the year!