Record Rack

*** Scaramanga, “Seven Eyes, Seven Horns,” Sun Large/Caroline. With lyrics as dense as Ghostface Killah’s, Scaramanga delivers a compelling batch of slang-saturated street stories that have the ability to both captivate and confuse. Also known as Sir Menelik, this Kool Keith collaborator thrives on warped narratives that take more detours than a hapless tourist, yet still manage to entertain like a catchy dance tune. Several underground producers supply dusty, drum-driven hip-hop beats.

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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 otherwise noted.