Styles P

There's a telling skit that divides Styles P's new collaborative album with Scram Jones; it's called "Haze vs. Sour" and has Styles arguing with former the Lox bandmate Jadakiss about midafternoon strains. Jadakiss insists on the Haze, because it reminds him of the '90s and doesn't stink up his apartment's elevator. But Styles doesn't buy it; he wants the Sour, "that new shit." Float (the Yonkers, NY rapper's sixth studio album) explores new sonic territory, rooted in gangster rap, but branching into more experimental electronic production. Jones (who made a name for himself producing for NYC's hardest: Wu-Tang, Immortal Technique, Lloyd Banks) starts bare bones with a sample and then extends the sound outward, filling the body of the track with drums. The result isn't groundbreaking, but it's still fresh for Styles. As per usual, the world's hardest MC walks to the beat of his own drum, fully expecting the production to follow along. It's this kind of confidence, and Styles' unfaltering, typewriter-crisp flow, which defines his gangster-ism, post-juice bar — Styles' voice never left the hood. On "Intro," he laughs maniacally over a looped string sample and pounding drums, cherishing the ease of lyrical murder: "It wasn't me; I was smoking weed with his bodyguard." Whereas on "Screw Ya'll," a charged cinematic sample sets the scene for a more contemplative Styles: "Couple niggas dying, a couple'll get life, couple of niggas change when they get to see the light, couple get a second chance and do the same shit twice." But not Styles.