To hear the group tell it, the Ground Zero Movement has already infiltrated far-flung corners of the globe. “We’re on five different continents right now,” explains Sid Fly, one of the four charismatic MCs who share mike time in the Denver-based rap collective. “You can’t really count Antarctica. They ain’t…

Though criminally underappreciated, Meshell Ndegeocello, who appears Wednesday, October 30, at the Bluebird Theater, with DJ Sundance Kid, helped lay the foundation for current neo-soul sisters and brothers such as Jill Scott, D’Angelo, Erykah Badu and Floetry. Her latest CD, Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape, shuns the lush orchestration that defined…

When you’re part of a dub band from Colorado, live high in the mountains and spend your days in a basement playing with analog recording devices and enough instruments for an orchestra, you find time to get in touch with the spirit world. You might cement your ideas about the…

Slug, the primary rhymesayer behind the Minneapolis hip-hop duo Atmosphere, is feeling like something of a prognosticator these days. He predicts that once Christina Ricci listens to his song “The Bass and the Movement,” from his new disc, God Loves Ugly, she’ll be unable to resist his charms. On the…

Reggae fans probably know the Jamaican-born, London-based Linton Kwesi Johnson best for his protest albums, classics such as Dread Beat An’ Blood (1978), Making History (1984) and the more recent More Time (1998). But Johnson is as well-known for his poetry as he is for his contributions to reggae music…

Kyle “Scratch” Jones of the Philly-bred group the Roots thinks it’s just about time for the return of the beatboxer. He’s so confident that hip-hop heads will embrace the mouthy art that he’s just dropped a solo release, The Embodiment of Instrumentation, which showcases his ability as a producer and…

In the last ten months, the public image of the New York Police Department and former mayor Rudy Giuliani have undergone makeovers as drastic as those performed on tawdry daytime talk shows, where delinquent reprobates turn into model citizens with the help of some cosmetic rehabilitation. This point is not…

On the cover of his first solo record, Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections, Thomas “Cee-Lo” Callaway — flanked by a church-style pipe organ and wearing a psychedelic top hat — looks a little like a diabolical Buddha, or maybe a shaman, putting on a funhouse magic show. Light refracts…

The Brooklyn-based rap quartet Anti-Pop Consortium, Tuesday, April 16, at the Bluebird Theater, cites influences as diverse as goth rockers Bauhaus, Joy Division and the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. This eclecticism and willingness to transcend musical boundaries have endeared the group to Thom Yorke, who asked the Consortium…

As far as underground hip-hop goes, DJ Babu has got all the bases covered. He makes mixed tapes, produces records, collects vinyl and bangs around in clubs, both as a solo artist and as a member of a couple of stellar crews. At the moment, however, he’s homed in on…

Minneapolis rapper Slug might not yet be “bigger than breast implants” as he boasts on his song “Guns and Cigarettes,” but the lyrical skills he displays on that track and on other humorous cuts, like the pimpalicious “Lyle Lovette” (from his cassette-only release Headshots Se7en), are as notorious as Anna…

The year 2001 produced its share of catastrophes: major terrorist campaigns in D.C. and New York, a widespread anthrax scare — and J. Lo’s solo debut. Fortunately, there’s plenty worth remembering about the first official year of the new millennium, as artists of every genre proved that music still matters,…

Suffice it to say that Mystic’s career as a hip-hop artist got off to a difficult start. On the day the young, Oakland-based rapper signed with Goodvibe Records in 1999, her excitement was quickly tempered by some tragic news. “The day that I got my record deal was the day…

Twenty-two-year-old Bilal’s promising debut bolsters the argument that Philadelphia may once again be the center of soul. With the help of fellow Philly soulquarians ?uestlove from the Roots and producer/musician James Poyser (Common, D’Angelo), Bilal suggests the energy and inspiration of the city’s most exciting musical era — when producers…

When the world changed on September 11, so did Boots Riley’s career. About a week after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the leader of the Oakland-based rap group the Coup found himself folded into the news of the day, amid images of debris-covered firefighters and…

When Mystic rolled through town as part of Slum Village’s Family Tree Tour in July, she won the audience over with her conscious rhymes and soulful singing. By the time the then-unknown vocalist hit the first few bars of her first single, “The Life,” she had heads nodding and people…

India.Arie believes in music’s power to heal, transform and transcend. And though the grooving, funky and bluesy moments might disguise it, this notion serves as a spiritual underpinning for much of her Motown debut, Acoustic Soul. “We’ve all heard of someone being woken up from a coma by a song…

It’s been three years since local 3 Da Hardway recording artist Kingdom dropped a jewel from his crown. The game has changed somewhat since the release of his debut record, I Reign Omnipotent, in 1998, but the just-released followup, Life As I Know It, shows why this rapper remains one…

Has the Wu-Tang dynasty fallen off? Rumors of strife within the group, along with Old Dirty Bastard’s legal troubles and declining record sales, all suggest the kings of Shaolin may have lost the power that they once wielded over the rap industry like a mighty sword. With so many Wu-affiliated…

Since the breakup of A Tribe Called Quest — the group that, for ten years, consistently put out some of the best records in hip-hop before disbanding in 1998 — fans have had varied success keeping up with the careers of its founding members. Last year, Jonathan “Q-Tip” Davis III…

The Smut Peddlers have chosen an odd place to call home. New York City, formerly the sin capitol of the world, has been virtually transformed into a porn-free zone thanks to a woefully energetic mayor. For a group that traffics in the very trash the city has so swiftly swept…

For the past decade, the New York City-based Groove Collective has mapped the unlikely musical spaces between jazz, house, funk, hip-hop and the Beatles. To traverse this terrain as a listener, you won’t need a compass — nor will you get lost — if you accept that the mind and…