Los Angeles in the early 1990s was a creative hotbed for hip-hop innovation, and much of it took place at the Good Life Cafe--a South Central health-food store where the city's finest microphone fiends would gather to showcase their freestyle skills, spitting ghetto wisdom straight off their respective domes. The first group to rise from the scene was Freestyle Fellowship, comprised of Aceyalone, Mikah Nine, P.E.A.C.E., Self Jupiter, and DJ Kiilu. As the follow-up to their independent debut, To Whom It May Concern, Innercity Griots is a progressive hip-hop masterpiece and an incredible display of lyrical elevation. Freestyle Fellowship expand rap music's boundaries wider than their lungs right before they let loose the verbal acrobatics. Groundbreaking songs like "Inner City Boundaries," "Park Bench People," "Bullies of the Block," and "Hot Potato" brilliantly build on the concepts of old-school jazz improvisation in a present tense, as the MCs bounce verses off each other and the cool, jazzy beats. --James Tai