BRAND NUBIAN

Foundation

Arista Records

Your friend, a hip-hop junkie, celebrates her birthday soon. Also, suppose you could assemble the corpuscles of the hip-hop universe in any way you willed. What gift would you generate for her?

For a musical demigod like yourself, it shouldn't be too difficult to envision your girl's heaven: constant breakdancing showcases of precarious elasticity and acrobatics; trains bombed for everyone to enjoy the bangin'-est graf pieces since the first street kid fiddled with aerosol paint: DJ battles where everybody's at least as nice as Roc Raider: every MC rhymes at least two syllables every couplet...

Bring it back, b. Mediocrity exists, and necessarily so; if it didn't, what would happen to pop music?

Who cares. More importantly, if it didn't exist, every emcee would be KRS, Rakim and Black Thought at once. Isn't there something to be said about room for improvement?

I say, for your girl's birthday, have a warmly-appreciated, old school lyricist make a comeback with the strength of your illegimate son Hercules. Forget her probable conception of Eternity: in the day-to-day digs through the crates--or the racks at Tower--there are few musical phenomena that bring more smiles than a well-liked rhymer who comes back with skills out his ass. De La's Trugoy managed it in Stakes is High, as does Lord Jamar in Brand Nubian's newest, Foundation.

Back when Brand Nubian's debut, One for all, was first released, Grand Puba seemed the quartet's spokesperson, the lead, the one with the skills and the knowledge. The fact that one of his two solo joints on the album was their first single might've been what delivered this message or the fact that he was the most adamant about his five-percenter beliefs, which fit right into the era of Africa medallions and Feared Black Planets. Regardless, everybody of course seated Brand Nu's beats, was amused by Derrick X's pre-B Real's nasalness and loved the Edie Brickell sample in "Slow Down"...but if you asked anybody whose lyrics was the tightest, they probably would've been like "Puba, home slice" or something funky fresh like that.

Not to say Lord Jamar and Derrick--now Sadat--X weren't respected: their memorable appearances on Tribe's "Show Business" and Diamond D's "A Day in the Life" still get props. And how ridiculous is "Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down," Brand Nubian's first post-Grand Puba & DJ Alamo single, to this day? Play it at your girl's birthday party, and everybody'll get open, guaranteed (as long as they're old enough).

The thing is, despite this extraordinary single, Lord Jamar and Sadat X seemed to hide behind Grand Puba's light--for a while at least, because even Puba's solos left much to be desired, especially Lord Jamar, who didn't have Sadat's distinctive "flow" that sounded like he was holding his nose while not caring about what rhymed with what. So by last year, after Puba proved to be capable of only a single (don't front, you know you started rocking Tommy only after you saw the "360 degrees" video) and after Sadat X's solo attempts flopped miserably, Brand Nubian seemed to have no hope. Nevermind Lord Jamar, who was always just "aight."

If your girl's at all like me--and she must be, since we both live partly for hip-hop and we're both Scorpios--she knows all of this. She also probably jocked Brand Nu's comeback singles this summer, in which all three lyricists obviously came up. She might've bobbed her head to the first one, "The Return," in part because it was produced by Premier, as every awaited East Coast comeback seems to require, but "Back Up Off the Wall" had a beat bordering on commercial, and it was still slammin', starting with the hook: "Mad 'cause the life I lead / twice your speed / brown-skinned mami that's the wife I need / light that weed / front, n*gga might just bleed / trying to ball with y'all but I might just flee." Not exactly the moralistic Brand Nubian of yesteryear, but how hot is the triple-syllable rhyme scheme?

And what I--and probably your girl--didn't expect is that this hook represents Jamar's new style. The Dread Jamar shines in "The Beat Change," over a Lord Finesse track reminiscent of roller rinks: "I be that kid with the dreads / I remember when I hid from the feds / plus I always did what I said / I was gonna do / talk sh*t right in front of you / never forfeit, on top / we do it non-stop, with more jewels than a pawn shop." The rhymes just stack up one on top of the other, as brother Mos Def said:

But the instances of Jamar's poetry in motion that have me feeling ultra transcend these conventional schemes, where you can notice he actual format and where he breaks it up, as in "Straight OuttaNow Rule": "A lot of y'all n*ggas is 85th/ on someshady sh*t/ bark is much worse than your bite likea baby pit/ in the pitch dark of the night youafraid to get exposed/like the sunlight which rosein the morning/ froze in a gunfight." OK, Mr.Superthug forever-strapped Jamar can ease up offthe hardness; but van-damn, he can rhyme.

And so can his boys. Tell your girl to takenote of Sadat's story in "The Beat Change" andespecially Puba's in "Probable Cause." And how canyou go wrong with Common on your album (even if hedoesn't rip as we know he can)?

Of course, there are unforgiveables. Pubasounds aight singing in "Foundation," but he needsto chill in "Love Vs. Hate." "Don't Let it Get toyour Head." "Let's Dance" and "Too Late" all soundas pop as a can of Pringles. "Sincerely" getsprops for the concept and a hypnotizinginstrumental, but even Jamar should've sat down awhile longer with his text. And although I likeOne for all, the regression to their sound fromback then in "I'm Black and I'm Proud" isdubious. Then again, your girl could getnostalgic...

Don't get me wrong: Foundation is far from aclassic. its tightest tracks are at best, cool; inother words, I can't see any of them alongside"Slow Down" and "Punks Jump up..." in the Hall ofHip-Hop Fame. If you think you can come up withsomething more glorious for your boo, since youg-o-d and all. . . Just don't hate when I give herthe album myself