Nametag & Nameless

After years spent just beyond the shadows of the MCs who've carried the torch for Detroit's legendary hip-hop scene over the past decade, feisty lyricist Nametag and beat-slinging cohort Nameless have declared it time to show and prove. For Namesake, the duo's first full-length go-around as a unit, features all of the unsettled grittiness and fractured, soul-laced beauty you'd expect from a record coming out of the D. The tough-as-concrete beats, dissonant, diced-up keyboard melodies and droning, digital bass lines of cuts like "How I Get," "Cease & Desist" and "May Day" are fairly par for the course, revealing the creative complexity of the producer's sample chopping skills. Nametag does a fine job with what he's given; his malleable wordplay works each cut's every crevice as the lyricist offers up just enough topical diversity to avoid sounding tired or entirely one-dimensional. Together, the two men definitely bring some heat and deliver a record that should resonate with lovers of the Detroit sound.