Thugs get a bad name, no doubt about it. What with every Nelly, Lil Romeo, and Ying Yang Twins stinking up the airwaves, how can a real thug get a break? Gone (well, almost gone) are the days when Snoop could instantly count on platinum album success, and forget about the marvels of majesty that once emanated from the mouths and MPCs of Flavor Flav, Chuck D, RZA and the like. Sure, Busta Rhymes has a new album, Blessed, in the can, but really who cares about Busta Rhymes? When is the last time Busta produced something as brain locking as It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back or Fear of a Black Planet? Never, right? I may be mixing apples with oranges, east coast with west, the 80s with the 00s, but talent knows no boundaries.

Today's choice for heroic gangsta/sonic sampling wizardry come courtesy Infinito: 2017 and Plastic Little.

A visit to Infinito: 2017's website doesn't clear up matters as to whether the act is a group or simply 2017 himself. Listing band members as "HERU, INFINITO: 2017, THOTH, Markus Garvey, MA'AT, I AM 720, THE 5%, CHILDREN OF THE SUN," the site instantly links to MySpace, and the artist(s)' fantastic, earth mother drenched, historically learned and sonically sophisticated sounds.

Alluding to buried Biblical messages, Egyptian mystery school wisdom, and the struggle of year's past, "Monday Aneya Aseju" drapes a God oriented tale with crackling piano and beat samples, and what sounds like Odetta or Miriam Makeba singing gospel homilies. The track deepens with some wicked sample riffage, and the slick line, "I thought Indie.Arie was Venus Williams on a budget." It's slow mo, and drop dead slacker sensitive, a behind-the-beat mighty dub drop groove fest. But is it gangsta? (Next up, a beautiful bossa nova scented rap, "Jonah 38," pure sweet symmetry recalling Gil Scott Heron).

Scrolling down the 2017 site, further curiosities appear: calls to join the African revolution starring Haile Selassie, a quiz ("Which Egyptian God or Goddess do you represent?"), and links to further solo works: IT - Low Income Housing,

Infinito:2017 - For The Love Of Naked Black Women,  Roddny Dangrr Fild: Tragedy in Bar Sequences, and A Regular Black Dude Movie Pt. 1.

Who needs Blaxploitation movie comps when you've got tales this interesting?

Infinito: 2017 features, among other things and themes, "the thoughts of Dr. Francis Cress Welsing of the The Isis Papers," discussing the largely secret history of Black America.

Infinito 2017
"Tired of My Position" (mp3)
from "Welcome To the World of Hmmmmm"
(Nephew of Frank Records)

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Infinito 2017
"Goto Bed 12:57" (mp3)
from "Welcome To the World of Hmmmmm"
(Nephew of Frank Records)

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Plastic Little proclaims I'm Not A Thug:Philadelphia's Plastic Little (aka Plastik Lital, Plastique Likul, Plazdick Lidel) has performed at various music venues and art galleries on the east coast since the summer of 2001. Art gallery hip-hop? Sampling splendor and flowing rap banter for the green tea set? Read on...

Bent on the production of Michael 'SQUID' Stern coupled with the MC skills of Jonthousand, PackofRats, and No Body's Child (NBC), I'm Not A Thug seeks to resurrect the eternal from the infernal, their denial of thug credentials a healthy start. The band's previous release, Thug Paradise (I thought they laid no claim to thugdom?!), received glowing props from the national media, and favorable shouts outs from lands as far flung as Brazil and Russia (where the real thugs reside, just ask Putin).

But the true word that Little Plastic are a force to be reckoned with is apparent in their choice of producers, including Diplo, MFDoom/Viktor Vaughn producer King Honey, Hollertronix's Low Budget and Spankrock.

Fully cartoonish and as gaudy as an Anthony Newley Broadway bash, Plastic Little may be stuck on 45 rpm, but it's alright.

Plastic Little
"Bum Rush The Set" (mp3)
from "She's Mature"
(Tonearm)

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Plastic Little
"I'm Not a Thug" (mp3)
from "I'm Not A Thug"
(Free News Projects)

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