Expansion Team, as the name suggests, sees Dilated Peoples honing their old school hooks and breaks to ensnare purists and the mainstream alike. Over down-tempo beats, eerie Hitchcock strings ("Clock Work"), dinner jazz ("Pay Attention!"), 70s cop-show horns (Hardhitters) and DJ Babu's turn-table gymnastics ("Dilated Junkies"), their exhausting couplets wage war on the talents of fellow hip hop crews; while simultaneously validating their boasts of rhyme supremacy. Yet it's the instantly addictive slow-roller, "Worst Come to Worst", that best proves their point. Along with the "nobody comes close" taunts, there's a lot of regulation second album material: "Trade Money" assures that success isn't without its downsides ("Since last year I've accumulated more money / on top of that I got a lot of people acting funny"), "Proper Propaganda" has a pop at the media and there are countless reassurances that success doesn't mean principles will be compromised. Their messages may not be new, but the Dilated Peoples' genius is delivering them with simmering tunes that make them worth hearing again. --Dan Gennoe