Who? This Boston-bred, MC/DJ duo joined forces in 1992 and quickly began opening for hip-hop icons like Rakim and Redman. Before they started dropping full-lengths in 2001, the pair racked up mad underground cred with their sampling of the Transformers cartoon theme song.

What's the deal? This duo's fourth album, A New Dope, gets cheeky. On "Get Dumb," which sputters along at an intense 120+ bpm, Esoteric forgets kindergarten basics like addition ("Two plus two, add 'em get five") and spelling ("'Cemetery,' I spell it with an 'a'), and includes such facetious proclamations as "Nickelback shoulda won a Grammy" and "Mike Tyson, such a clever guy."

Fun fact: Esoteric traded an issue of Amazing Spider-Man #252 for his first drum machine. JULIA SIMON

Now Hear This:
7L & Esoteric - "3 Minute Classic" (Download MP3)
7L & Esoteric - "Play Dumb" (Download MP3)

Talk: How dope is 7L & Esoteric's fourth album? COMMENT

On the Web: 7l-esoteric.com