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All is not well in the trap. Clifford "T.I." Harris, the Southern MC who ruled the rap airwaves last year with his fourth album, King, is at war with his alter ego, T.I.P. The personae represent two stages of his career: the lyrical smoothie dancing alongside Justin Timberlake on "My Love" and the hardened young thug from Atlanta's rough Bankhead neighborhood.

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The second album from Montreal rapper/producer Josh "Socalled" Dolgin may be the most unusual hip-hop album of the year. A trippy exploration of Jewish identity, it teems with collaborators, from indie MC C-Rayz Walz to Fiddler on the Roof legend Theodore Bikel. Klezmer melodies waft over Socalled's MPC beats, evoking New York's Second Avenue district, a.k.a.

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On their second full-length, Seattle's Blue Scholars try to promote hip-hop's potential for personal transformation and political change, dedicating songs to soldiers in Iraq ("Back Home") and protesters at the 1999 WTO demonstrations ("50 Thousand Deep").

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For the follow up to their promising 2003 debut, Spirit in Stone, this indie-rap duo reinvent themselves as ghetto superheroes, rechristen their Portland, Oregon hometown "Razorblade City," and invite George Clinton, Fishbone, dead pres, Smif N Wussun, and others to join the fun.