As former graf artists, MCs Tame One and El Da Sensei gained fans among writers worldwide with their ode to spray-can art on "Wrong Side of the Tracks." Post new-school artists with an old school bent, the Artifacts smartly meshed their own frenetic rhyme pacing with heavy, blunted beats (courtesy T-Ray, Buckwild, and others). While Between a Rock and a Hard Place fell short as a certified classic (its lack of variety limited its strengths), it still had its share of great underground anthems--from "C'mon wit da Git Down," "Lower da Boom," and "Dynamite Soul." --Oliver Wang