BLack on BLonde

"Mellowing out" after his move from Toronto to Vancouver, Canadian rapper K-Os decides that genre ain't nuthin' but a major category header, and that millennial artists aren't bound by such labels, so let the rap-rocking and rock-rapping begin, and then sequester it. BLack on BLonde is a conceptual piece, putting all its more rap-oriented material on the "Black" disc and all its more rock-oriented material on its "Blonde" disc, but with more highlights falling toward the front, these two discs just beg to be shuffled. It makes for a big and a bit cumbersome listen, but K-Os is best when he's true to his moniker, offering the listener an unpredictable and unclassifiable blitzkrieg of ideas that range from clever to brilliant. There's no reason the furious and twitchy indie rocker "Billy Bragg Winners" ("I wanna read between the lines of a book that means nothing") shouldn't sit next to the alt-rap space poem called "MTV" ("I rap and I think/I am the king") and when you put "Sunglasses at Night" singer Corey Hart on the rap-oriented disc, talking points and blurb-worthy moves seem more important than the music. It's an annoyance because Hart fits perfectly into the karate-kicking, Kid Cudi-styled highlight dubbed "Like a Comet (We Rollin')," as does special guest Travie McCoy during "C.L.A." (like an electro-disco update of Jay-Z's "99 Problems") and Sam Roberts during "Don't Touch" (it's as if the Magnetic Zeros and Bell Biv Devoe came together for the song "That Coachella-Attending Girl Is Poison"). K-Os has always been like Murs over a mash-up and there's no stopping his talent here, so skip the "think piece"-styled segmenting, shuffle, and get right to enjoying this wild, rewarding kaleidoscope of a ride. ~ David Jeffries