H II (US Version)

DJ Honda’s second album HII is a quantum leap over his debut, largely because he’s given himself freedom to cut-and-paste his own backgrounds and he’s enlisted a number of collaborators (X-ecutioners, KRS-One, Mos Def) to spice up the mix. He’s not a post-modernist like DJ Shadow — he’s a modern hip-hop DJ, reviving the musical adventure of early hip-hop. Occasionally, the tracks collapse under their own ambitions, but much of HII simply tears along, pushing acid-jazz and street-level beats together. It’s a fascinating, invigorating listen that more than makes the case that in the late ’90s international hip-hop can be more exciting than the homegrown kind.