DJ Alibi: Lets Ride 12

The surging anthemic beats of “Let’s Ride” grabbed me and then jetted right to the meaty socio-rhyming and lyrical licorice of emcee Insight, who sparkled over Toronto-based Mikhail Galkin’s (aka DJ Alibi) foundation of classic crashing boom-bap, sweet background soul samples, and multi-layered charging army of cymbals, organs, and horns. The soul-crooning samples kept coming with “Don’t Look Down”, and lifted off the table when Bamboombox, a second guest emcee, set fire to DJ Alibi’s fine jazz-stitched table cloth. This debut three-track EP shows that Galkin can certainly set the table via a firm grip on the basic utensils of hip-hop’s decks and knobs. Though the brevity caught me off guard, and I was bummed that this was only an EP and didn’t grow into a full meal of hip-hop samba-sliced beats and live lyrics, the good news is a full length is due to drop in 2007, a true test to see if DJ Alibi can serve up a full meal.