Apathy & Celph Titled - No Place Like Chrome

Apathy's mixtape It's The Bootleg Muthafuckas! was an underground smash, gaining him a major label deal, but Antidote records have managed to get their hands on this little gem before his debut drops. No Place Like Chrome (what a title) is a classic diss record. This album is rude – seriously, offensively, laugh-out loud dirty. Ap and Celph's relentless trading of beatdowns, particularly their undermining of so-called 'conscious rappers', is a much more intelligent deconstruction of hip-hop than Eminem's self-pitying white trash schtick. Unlike Em, Ap and Celph never stopped writing incredible battle rhymes. The beats are raw, bass heavy boom-bap - honourable mention must go to the producer of Fix Your Face, which features Little Green Bag (from Reservoir Dogs) sped up and re-imagined as minimal crunk. Fans of The Alkaholiks (one of whom features on Drink Specials) and Ol' Dirty Bastard will get this, everyone else can follow the advice in standout track S.M.D. [Bram Gieben]