* * * DILATED PEOPLES “Expansion Team” <i> Capitol</i>

A tectonic shift has occurred in L.A. hip-hop. Once the epicenter of gangsta rap, the Southland is a breeding ground for hip-hop that clings to old-school values such as harmless hedonism, creative sampling and playful self-aggrandizing.

Too often, however, this brand of feel-good hip-hop can sound as reactionary as its hard-core counterpart: Railing against the evils of materialism and gonna-get-mine solipsism can grate after a while too.

On its second album (in stores Tuesday), Dilated Peoples effectively split the difference between protest and forward-thinking technique. Firmly subscribing to the belief that articulate dissent is the best weapon against intolerance, the L.A. trio dispenses “Proper Propaganda” (to name one song title) with acerbic wit and a clutch of leading-edge producers to keep the jams fresh. Tracks such as “Trade Money” and “War” turn the tables on the usual us-versus-them dialectic by imagining a world where self-sufficiency and community trump turf warfare and finger-pointing.

But this is no somber civics lesson. The album’s architects--the Roots’ ?uestlove, Da Beatminerz, Dilated’s Babu--use live instrumentation and dusty-groove samples that burst forth with bright, primary colors. Dilated Peoples headline the Palace on Tuesday.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless noted.