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Going into the new year, I intended to make my music posts more current considering most of the songs I’ve featured so far date back to the earlier part of last decade. And that shit’s so old it might as well be the soundtrack playing at Jurassic Park. The problem is, current music is making that really hard for me to do. I’ve got a couple fairly new releases in my slick 5-disc Panasonic CD player — they’re not exactly knocking my socks off here, now — so I’m giving them some time to marinate, and we’ll see.

But for now, fuck all that shit, it’s been too long since I did a proper one of these. Today, dedleg is brought to you by the number 6 and the letter q, with special musical guest Dilated Peoples.

Dilated Peoples - image via amiestreet.com

Dilated Peoples are one of those groups who never quite made it. They rose quickly through the LA underground scene alongside Jurassic 5, with both groups achieving a frenzied cult-like following before releasing their anticipated debut full-lengths. Ultimately, J5 saw more commercial success, though Dilated did get a small taste of the mainstream.

The group, consisting of emcees Rakaa Iriscience and Evidence rapping alongside DJ Babu’s turntable wizardry, saw a bit of MTV rotation and was featured on a number of video games’ soundtracks — and I mean, in hip hop you can’t get much more legit than that. If you played as much NBA Street Vol. 2 as I did in college, you no doubt know them as the group responsible for the funky theme music. Or maybe you don’t, but yeah, it was them.

Interestingly enough, Dilated’s real Achilles heel was their consistency. They’re solid almost to a fault. Their 2000 debut, The Platform was a hell of a first impression. Sharing the limelight with a host of guest vocalists and producers, Rakaa and Evidence blazed through every track — tight flows, lush beats and unbeatable stamina made it one of the best hip hop releases of the early millennium. Unfortunately, their subsequent albums, though solid, never really brought anything new. They were too consistent. Additionally, they increasingly favored solo tracks, which lost the entrancing dynamic between Rakaa and Evidence. Ultimately, The Platform remains their shining achievement, so here’s one of the most exciting tracks on the album:

Have your party thank me later.