This world is full of strife and misunderstanding/But try to understand why I do just what I do," pleads raspy-voiced Basehead main man Michael Ivey on "2000 BC" (short for "2000 brain cells ago"), the lead single from Play With Toys, the group's major-label debut. The scratchy, bass-driven groove is a rejoinder to all those hip-hoppers who claim to have a handle on postintegration America. Not...

It's got a good beat, but you can't dance to it. Like Play With Toys, Basehead's first album, Not in Kansas Anymore is an unlikely sonic mishmash, a melting pot of musical styles under which no flame burns. The ingredients – broken rhythm & blues, stinky rock, big pieces of fat funk, borderline "rap," "Am I singing yet?" vocals – they all just sit there as a gritty meal for hungry...