Copperpot: WYLA

Copperpot
WYLA
EV Records

Copperpot is an underground producer extraordinaire, the owner of EV Records, and a notoriously reclusive NYC DJ (now out of Chicago). Rather than move the crowd, he prefers to hunker down in the studio. And with his second album, WYLA (What're You Looking At), he's crafted an instant cult classic; it's a party album for rap heads laying in the cut on a Thursday afternoon, thumping and jazzy and purposeful and boom bappie. And though I would've liked to hear a few more local and/or label-mate mic controllers, can you really complain about tracks given over to NY legends Prince Po (of Organized Konfusion), Masta Ace, and KRS (thrice!)?

So it doesn't much matter that Copperpot's so shy he breaks one of the basic tenets of the underground—rock it live. Instead, he gives impassioned sermons from his dark lab. He speaks with his hands. His language is hip hop (okay, technically English, too). His dialect is post-modern and tru school. So quit "Clowning Around." "Come Back Home" for the "Art of Rap." And forget Rick Ross—we about to "Blow."