There's an undeniable link between hip-hop and dance music, and it's becoming more and more apparent as one beat purveyor after another traverse mediums. But don't confuse DJ/producer King Britt – who's reached near iconic status among house music fanatics since launching Scuba in 1995 – as a rookie to the rap game. That'd be damn right insulting considering how deep-seeded Britt's hip-hop roots lie.

Under the moniker Silkworm, Britt toured with the Digable Planets as the jazzy rap outfit's DJ for 2 years in the mid-90s. He might be better known for one of his other musical personalities, though, as the man behind the retro funk marvel Sylk 130 (or countless remixes and collaborations with credible DJs like Josh Wink).

Britt taking the torch as the next fundamentally hip-hop minded producer to churn out the next installment in the Beat Generation series makes perfect sense, then. Following the likes of Pete Rock, Jay Dee and Marley Marl, Britt's created a listening party akin to his avant garde rap sensibilities on Adventures in Lo-fi, a noteworthy compilation that finds the ubiquitous producer's mellow beats lyrically enhanced by a cache of hand-picked vocalists that includes Cherrywine, Quasimoto and Dice Raw.
Naturally, the strongest element of Adventures is the production. Britt's beats range from bare-boned loops to inimitable experimentation, but they're consistently soulful, fluent and jazz-enhanced. His sound falls somewhere between the smooth backdrops or early 90s rap and the eclectic soundscapes of contemporary downtempo.

Of course hip-hop heads want lyrics, and each of Britt's tracks is complimented by mostly skilled lyricists. Fellow DJ and Philly rep Rich Medina kicks things off by unearthing his spoken word skills on "Planetary Analysis," serving acute meditations: "Seems to me just being American means be a slave to calories/ Piling like cancerous mountains of/ Vanilla ice cream cones with black face sprinkles."

And for more proof that Philly musicians stay loyal to their kind, Britt employs a few of the usual suspects as well as a couple lesser known names. Eloquent female wordsmith Bahamadia proves she's in the breed that excels in cameos (but unfortunately not full-lengths) on the spacey jam "Transcend." The Roots prodigy Dice Raw has the advantage of spitting over Britt's tightest beat on "Rise and Vibe," but the eternally emerging emcee doesn't sound nearly as fluid (in fact, with a deeper tone than we're used to, comes off like a Noreaga impressionist). We also get more "illy Philly" stylings from newcomers MC Grand Agent (on the lovely "Stay Free") and soulster Lady Alama (who makes a bid to be the next Jill Scott on "Love's Time").

Admittedly, what might be most exciting about Adventures, however, is that it reunites 2 components of the defunct but legendary Digable crew. Butterfly, aka Ish, the only DP emcee that's continually surfaced on the regular since the group's demise and now heads the live hip-hop crew Cherrywine, comes to his party alongside his crew on "The Sound." Though we haven't heard all that much of Cherrywine (their LP is recurrently delayed), the man formerly known as Butterfly almost reverberates the Digable sound on the fluid (if not random) hook: "Without a care/ So much to share/ To think is weird/ I love your hair/ About my blare/ Who dares to dare?/ It looks so tinted that I had to stare/ At the sound."

De La luminaries Pos and Trugoy raise the stakes on "Cobbs Creek (Great Skate remix)," and despite the head-bobbing tempo, feels a little used considering vinyl junkies have probably heard these words before "Hold Tight," a 12-inch they cut with Chachi Bacala. Quasimoto speeds up the pace on "Spaces," characteristically dropping punchlines like "Some emcees need to be smacked wordless."

Inviting smaller names such as Capitol A (on 2 tracks), Ivana Santilli and Mosez Gunn, King Britt has produced and compiled a first-rate collection of compositions that most aficionados of this sort of hip-hop will find soothing. His guests aren't as consistent, but as for King himself, he's approaching royalty.

Kevin Polowy