Spring Album Roundup: From Naughty and Nice Rap to Willie Country

BASEHEAD

“Not in Kansas Anymore”

Imago

* * * 1/2

One of the healthiest aspects of the contemporary hip-hop scene is how quickly worthy newcomers--from De La Soul and P.M. Dawn to Arrested Development--can attract critical and commercial support. Basehead’s “Play With Toys” deserved that same dual impact in 1992, but only the critics lined up behind the album.

Despite (or perhaps because of) a vision as radical and as self-absorbed as anything since the Prince of “Dirty Mind” days, the Washington group failed to break into even the national Top 100. Returning to action, the group’s mastermind, Michael Ivey, shows no sign of softening his hard-line approach.

In “Kansas,” Ivey remains an artist who forces you to meet him on his terms as he explores issues ranging from racism to self-reliance--his vocals are still mono-chromatic and his jazz ‘n’ funk beats continue to be stubbornly understated.

The themes, too, seem to waver uncertainly at times between goofy escapades and penetrating social observation as Ivey exhibits the wicked humor of Prince and the brooding ‘hood sensibilities of Ice Cube.

Yet there’s a power in Ivey’s originality and a provocativeness in his independence that stamp him as one of pop music’s most important new forces.