K-os

Atlantis-Hymns For Disco

[3.5/5] K-os is Canada’s biggest hip-hop star, which, admittedly, is like being the best ice hockey player in Compton. Ironically, he’s also the most despised. Haters-or whatever they’re called in the land of igloos and back bacon-can’t stand the way he uses hip-hop as a base from which to mix and match genres. The dreadlocked MC won’t win over his critics with his third album, Atlantis-Hymns For Disco. K-os throws hardcore b-boys a bone right off the bat, dropping a Public Enemy sample into the scratch-tastic old-school jam “ELEctrik HeaT – the seekwiLL.” After that, he’s clearly thinking outside the hip-hop box. “The Rain” imagines Percy Sledge chilling at Jamaica’s legendary Studio One, “CatDieseL” fuses new-romantic synths with classical string arpeggios, and “Valhalla” improbably sounds like Love And Rockets stoned on The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto. K-os occasionally veers into icky soft-pop territory on Atlantis, but give him props for mostly imagining where hip-hop might go in the future rather than recycling its past. (VIRGIN) Mike Usinger