Picture, if you can, the Beastie Boys not being annoying, and then add the foreign accents of System of a Down with the manic energy of Cypress Hill. What you'd end up with would be Mr. Lexicon, a sharply-tongued and unpredictable hip-hop trio that tosses serious messages in their music just when you think they're being funny.
Describing themselves as illegal refugees to the U.S., which may or may not be true, Mr. Lexicon open the album with guns blazing on the title track, scathing criticism of President Bush's war on Iraq. However, it's not preachy or heavy-handed, merely an honest reflection of their rage towards an idiotic war. Think of it as the rap equivalent of Green Day's "American Idiot."
Some of their tracks are from an immigrant's point-of-view, which does lend credibility to the biography on their website (http://www.mrlexicon.com). On the hilarious "The Love Song," the foreigners in Mr. Lexicon treat women better than American guys do, which probably has never been addressed in a hip-hop tune before. That rap, in its over twenty years of existence, still hasn't probed the depths of creativity is proven by this often original and surprising record.
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And you have to adore a hip-hop group that courageously samples Men At Work's early '80s cheese classic "Down Under," even keeping a bit of the indelible yet goofy chorus and making it fit the context of the album.
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