by SCOTT C

The noise out of New York these days is as monotonous as it ever was, save for the occasional interval of radically inspirational music, something the world has come to love about the Big Apple. NYC's Def Jux Records have done much to keep the spirit of next-level hip hop alive and well, carving out their own sound while a million cookie-cutter projects come and go. Enter their new push Hangar 18, whose LP The Multi-Platinum Debut Album has them touted as the best power trio since Rush. That statement alone begs for some further investigation, so the Mirror talked to beat-man Pawl over the phone from NYC about life with MCs Alaska and Windnbreeze.

Mirror: Did you guys choose Def Jux, or did Def Jux choose you?

Pawl: It was a little bit of both. I was doing work with artists on Def Jux before, having worked with Mr. Lif and their engineer Nasa, as well as running in the same circles as Cannibal Ox. It was kind of inevitable that we would end up there.

M: Hangar 18 represents another new sound of New York hip hop to me - not to say that you guys are the beginning and the end, but the centre of the hip hop universe gets ahead of itself sometimes, no?

P: People in New York think this is the centre of everything, but I think things are so crazy now - globally, nationally, regionally - that New York doesn't have the influence on hip hop that it did in the early '90s.

M: But because of that spread, people are way more open to other voices in hip hop music than they ever were.

P: Yeah, totally. I mean, our sound is pretty New York. The three of us were born and brought up here, and we live here now, so our record is simply life as we know it now.

With One Be Lo (aka One Man Army) at Casa Del Popolo on Saturday, Feb. 19, 9 p.m., $8

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