Victor Shade

No knock on Ra Scion’s prowess, but the best cut on the local MC’s new project with producer MTK, Victor Shade, is an instrumental his co-conspirator created to open their self-titled debut. Dubbed “Pym Strut,” it features an obscure sample—which MTK refuses to name—that’s so hard-charging it could galvanize a retreating army. The next track, “Bodega Politics,” rocks with a similar power level, and this time features Ra Scion’s trademark introspective-cum-political lyrics and complex delivery. It’s a style anyone familiar with Ra’s other project, Common Market, will recognize, but one which on track after track here—save for tangled and mangled “Tony Snow”—continues to compel. Call it a call to arms: Now with more energy. With DJ B-Mello. KEVIN CAPP

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Thu., May 27, 8 p.m., 2010