WEDNESDAY'S REVIEW: CADENCE WEAPON

Cadence Weapon "Afterparty Babies" (Upper Class/Anti)

Here's what a rapper from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada can get away with: "Do I Miss My Friends," the first track of Cadence Weapon's second album, is a lollygagging 5-minute opus of Bobby McFerrin-style mouthrock and deadpan rhymes about life as a kid with a conscience. The oom-bops and over-enunciated lyrics are strangely engrossing, but thank Jesus that only one song sounds that way. Of course, it makes sense that hip-hop is an abstraction in the hands of Mr. Weapon: Edmonton is a bumfuck oil town, so he's almost "indie" by default. But he's not obviously "Canadian," either; the first half of "Afterparty Babies" has plenty of danceteria moves and 8-bitty noises -- the stuff of hotshit Philly and B'more hipsters. Skip it and head to Side 2. Things finally get moving on "Real Estate," where the rapper gains some swagger and the beat has strong whiffs of Madlib weirdness and Ghostface swing. The hits keep coming: "Your Hair's Not Clothes" bops with well-honed electro nuttiness, and "Tattoos (And What You Really Feel Like)" drops references to "Stakes Is High" and Andre Nickatina within seconds of each other. Smartass.

Cadence Weapon performs March 6 at DC9.

Previously: Paul Oakenfold