Baba Brinkman

Despite an unusual rap moniker (yeah, it’s probably his real name) and a boring album title, Baba Brinkman comes through with an impressive debut. He opens with "Genesis,” an up-tempo track that traces the evolution of Brinkman from rap fan to battle rapper to poet-MC. It’s the perfect set-up for the rest of the album and Brinkman loves his concepts; he raps about his pro-pirating stance ("Copyridin’”), blames the American people for voting in Bush ("Symptom”) and gets inventive with stories about young love ("John Deere Green”) and sex ("Seduction”). The beats on Lit-Hop are often hype, fist-pumping productions, with the exclusion of the three lacklustre, melodramatic ballads contributed by Lucid Notion, who can’t quite live up to the promise of "Genesis.” Thankfully, Brinkman only turns one of them into a love song. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s Lin G’s slamming club-hop ("Symptom”), Sean Moody’s countrified hick-hop ("John Deere Green”) and a bunch of Infinite Potential beats that work some great samples but could use more interesting drum selections. Lit-hop is a versatile, skilled debut. Don't judge a book by its cover, or by its title.