Death Before Dishonor

It’s kind of refreshing to hear a Denver hip-hop act not trying to emulate the latest trends. On Living on the Jib, Death Before Dishonor mates hostile, head-banging breakbeats with strings and piano interludes that recall everyone from DJ Shadow to EL-P (of Company Flow). Tracks like “Somebody Stop Me” and “We Were All in Love With Dying” prove that homegrown beatmakers are capable of producing cuts that are on par with — and sometimes better than — those of the big-leaguers. As good as those beats are, though, Jib is weighed down by Death’s monotonous rhyme schemes; while he’s clearly a fresh MC, his flow and cadence on the album are fairly one-dimensional at times. Nonetheless, when he switches things up with a more forceful delivery, as he does on “Domesticated Cannibals” and “Boxcar Suicides,” he can be very compelling. Despite its drawbacks, Living on the Jib — bolstered by solid production and dope lyrics — still sounds awfully good.