HIP-HOP

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MESSIAH J & THE EXPERT Now This I Have To Hear Inaudible ***

After their sluggish 2003 debut album, What's Confusing You?, failed to set the world alight, Dublin-based Messiah J & The Expert might well have disappeared into the hip-hop undergrowth like so many other Irish acts and never come out again. However, as you'll hear on this hugely enjoyable outing from the pair, they simply went back to basics, took stock of where they were at and turned their hands to making something out of nothing. The result is an album loaded with smart tunes, killer lines - "write a decent song and they might have gave a fuck" is one of many quotables from The Boys Have Had Enough - and lots of justifiable bravado. Clever collaborations with vocalists Leda Egri and Nina Hynes (both of whom bring a soulful contrast to the album's fierce pull) and Definitive Jux MC C-Rayz Walz make for an album rich in width and depth. It really is something you have to hear for yourself. www.messiahjandtheexpert.com Jim Carroll