It's tough to collapse a 16-song hip-hop compilation into 100 words, because there are so many styles and no correlation between any of them. Of course, I suppose that's saying something right there. Without a consistent theme or feel, it's basically a competition to see which songs end up as mix tape fodder -- pick your faves, stick them on your hard drive, and forget about the rest. With its back-spinning melody and a subtle reference to Digable Planets, Vast Aire's drunken exposition "Why Is the Sky Blue?" is already in my newest lineup.

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