Devolution? Not quite, but it's not exactly a step forward either.

Frequent Blackalicious collaborator and Latyrx member Lyrics Born has dropped a new full-length on a new label, and he goes for a new look:

“On his latest, As U Were, Bay Area backpack-rap pioneer Lyrics Born imagines himself as he never was: the rapping, scatting, singing, high-energy frontman of a synth-pop/nü-funk band just waiting for its close-up.”

So … does he pull it off? The harrowing conclusion is at The A.V. Club.

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