The album is called Showbiz!, but there's nothing glitzy about MIKE — an underground NYC rapper whose workmanlike pace of excellent projects has brought the albums Faith Is a Rock (with Wiki and the Alchemist), Burning Desire and Pinball (with Tony Seltzer) all within the past 16 months.
And now here's Showbiz!, finding the rapper breezing through 24 two-minute raps that float by on a cloud of daydream soul samples and MIKE's relaxed, drawling flow. It all melts together into a glorious collage — a flip book of vintage hip-hop beats and woozy electronic ambience, evoking the wobbly synth chords of Boards of Canada on "Da Roc" and echoing abstraction on bleary closer "Diamond Dancing (Broke)." Rarely has a grand 24-song opus sounded so effortless and natural.
