Handsome Boy Modeling School, So...How's Your Girl? (Tommy Boy)
Hip hop has offered some stiff competition this year, with the impressive efforts by The Roots, Mos Def and Goodie Mob among others. But no one pushed the envelope of hip hop in '99 as fearlessly as Prince Paul. Earlier in the year, he released the eccentric, completely uncommercial hip-hop opera, Prince Among Thieves. Now Paul (a.k.a. Chest Rockwell) teamed up with Dr. Octagon producer Dan "The Automator" Nakamura (a.k.a. Nathaniel Merriweather) for the even more conceptually bizarre Handsome Boy Modeling School, based on an episode of Chris Elliott's underrated sitcome "Get a Life." Not everyone will get the humor (see "Look At this Face" for looped dialogue samples, "You must be another Handsome Boy graduate/Oh my god, they're gorgeous!"), but if they did, it probably wouldn't be that funny anyway. The album features a slew of guest stars, teaming Spain's Josh Hayden with Father Guido Sarducci in a Nick Drake-ish "Sunshine" . . . I had to pause and contemplate that for a moment. Other students of the modeling school include DJ Shadow (on "Holy Calamity"), Alec Empire, Trugoy from De La Soul, Miho Hatori from Cibo Matto (on "Metaphysical"), Biz Markie and Kid Koala among many others. The Automator steals the show with his bottomless sonic hat tricks that keep the guest stars (and the listener) constantly off-balance. Prince Paul did for 90s hip-hop what Frank Zappa (with his Mothers Of Invention) did to 60s rock -- ridicule and deflate the self-important poofs who forgot how to get weird and have some sick fun.
