Serious Business This! (Digital Version)

If the woozy, percolating sub-bass of Kankick resembles the work of idiosyncratic producer Madlib, maybe it’s because they learned their craft side by side. The pair grew up friends in Oxnard, California, where Kankick was a year behind Madlib at the local high school. Oxnard is known for its breezy climate and mild-mannered appearance, but Kankick’s brand of hip-hop sounds like it came from some subaqueous metropolis. Buzzing and bubbling with all varieties of bass and keyboard texture, much of Serious Business This! comes off like a reconfigured, hip-hop version of the soundtrack to a vintage Jacques Cousteau film. Segments of mysterious dialogue drop in and out of the mix, and extraterrestrial sound effects careen on the periphery of these songs. Yet, like Madlib, Kankick maintains a center of gravity even in the middle of his most saturated tracks. These instrumentals are as club-friendly as they are interstellar, and they invite the listener to imagine his choice of MC over any one of this diverse collection of beats.