Galactic

New Orleans' Galactic is one of the few bands in the jam scene to attempt hip-hop without embarrassing themselves. Unlike all the bands that condescend with novelty covers of contemporary rap hits, Galactic challenges themselves with more thoughtful, complex hip-hop rhythms. Of course, it helps that instead of relying on a dreadlocked novice rapper, they outsource established emcees to do the rapping for them. In the past they've toured with Chali 2na of the Jurassic 5 and Boots Riley of The Coup. They toned down the hip-hop influences a bit on last year's funky live album <I>The Other Side of Midnight: Live in New Orleans</i>.