C.E.S. Crew / Brother Moses & Tall Tale

C.E.S. Crew's six-song Ready 'N' Willin' single serves as sonic appetizer for its forthcoming full-course meal, Capture Enemy Soldiers. Though the KC hip-hop trio covers well-trodden lyrical territory, it brings exuberance and genuine mic skills to the party. The title track finds the crew pontificating on the joys of puffing ganja: You offering me some more?/No question, I'll smoke another/Go and hit the hit 'til you choke and mutter in broken sputters/Causin' coughing fits and shudders. "Ice Water" is a bouncing boast-rap that relies on tongue-twisting wordplay instead of clever snaps: Come to the next C.E.S. show and catch it on instant replay/Now listen closely and follow whatever we say/'Fore I break inside your house and pawn all your shit on ebay.The rowdy closer, "Drop the Mic," features the crew gleefully stepping on each other's toes, enlivened by an appearance from its Midtown peers the Guild.

Though Brother of Moses is also a denizen of the Waldo-to-Westport circuit, his sophomore solo effort is a million miles from C.E.S.' boisterous rhyme slaying and kling-klang choruses. A doggedly conscious MC, Bro Mo includes no song titles or credits on Land Mind, keeping the focus squarely on the music -- and even more intently on the message. Tall Tale's atmospheric soundtracks provide a sublime setting for Bro Mo's complex poetics, which vivisect everything from crass materialism to domestic abuse to the real terrorists in our own government. Known for his work with Seven Fold Symphony and fellow hip-hop addict Negro Sco, Bro Mo has never been one to resort to commercial measures to score head-bob points. Uncle Sam drives a Humvee and rocks diamonds/Keep on strivin', he raps on the sixth track, which ends with him crooning, My country is a thief to the familiar my country, 'tis of theemelody of "America." A two-man Communist Manifesto for the hip-hop underground, Land Mind'sproletarian prose probably won't be fingered for major-label distribution anytime soon, but revolutions of this sort always begin at the grassroots level.