Eminem may have been crowned the commercial Caucasian face of hip-hop by critics and commentators, but he was hardly the only (or necessarily even the best) white kid to excel in the form as the millennium was turning over. Underground heads like El-P from Company Flow, High Mighty, Sage Francis, and Mr. Jason and Nabo Rawk -- who collectively make up the Boston duo Porn Theatre Ushers -- were equal or greater forces of rap creativity, yet worked well beneath the radar of mainstream success. After generating significant waves in the underground hip-hop community with the outstanding Me Him/My Imagination/Catnip single in the waning moments of the 1990s, Porn Theatre Ushers finally put together their first full-length statement with Sloppy Seconds. Not quite an official long-player but more than an EP (the vinyl release was called a double-12" EP), the album may not have been the wealth of extraordinary new material that fans had been hoping for ever since the single dropped, but since it does at least collect all the duo's material up to that point in one convenient place, it is a perfect introduction to their wonderful mayhem. Almost half of the material had already shown up elsewhere in official or unofficial form, but that does nothing to obscure the luster of the album. The album partly hearkens back, much like the work of contemporaries Jurassic 5, to an era when kids used to trade playful verses on street corners or in clubs for fun and a sense of one-upmanship, less competitive than communal, more artistic than economic. Nabo Rawk drops a series of connected non sequiturs that range effortlessly from sarcastic to humorous and self-deprecating sentiments, and he carries the story more with attitude than through any sort of coherent narrative. His style variously recalls Nas, MC Serch, and De La Soul, but the overall tone is Nice Smooth, tough when need be but more often jocular. Even when he does talk smack or go roughneck, he seems to do so with the slyest of grins. Mr. Jason's production is expert throughout, keeping one foot in hardcore urban reality with edgy, syncopated beats and one in the world of whimsy, with samples that are sometimes ridiculously goofy and fun, sometimes deeply tongue-in-cheek, and occasionally spacy or mystical, like the sitar intro that opens Catnip and the '50s sci-fi siren that runs throughout the rest of the song. The highlight of the album is the incredibly swinging Me Him, but virtually every track is supreme, with Balloon Knots featuring Cage, the hilarious joke posing of Girls Sweat Me, and the steely Bug Men featuring K-No Supreme being the standout moments. All in all, a bracing debut that deserves more attention. ~ Stanton Swihart, Rovi

1		Balloon Knots
2		Girls Sweat Me
3		Blah, Blah, Blah
4		Duck Hunt
5		Oozing Pestilence
6		Far Out
7		Bug Men
8		My Imagination
9		Catnip
10		Me and Him

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