I haven't listened to as much hip-hop in the last year as I used to (not that I've ever been a huge fan anyway), but one of my favourite albums in the genre is Distortion, the new solo effort from Run DMC's Rev Run. He's now a preacher, and that's referenced in some of the lyrics, but he's not driving the point down people's throats. In fact, a lot of the very short (10 songs in 23 minutes) songs sound a lot like vintage Run DMC. A bit of that may have to do with the fact that there are samples from Run DMC numbers Hit It Run, Rock The House and Rock Box. There are many other samples as well, but the most obvious are from Joan Jett's I Love Rock And Roll, Blondie's Rapture and -- far above and beyond the others -- Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama on Home Sweet Home. There's no new ground being broken here like Run DMC achieved in the early '80s, but I found Distortion to be a solid listen.

np The Posies - Amazing Disgrace