Handsome Boy Modelling School
White People
(Atlantic)
When producers Prince Paul (De La Soul) and Dan the Automator (Gorillaz) first unveiled their Handsome Boy Modelling School outfit five years ago with the superb So, How's Your Girl?, people were astounded by their polished style and famous music friends.
Not surprisingly, White People is an excellent next episode. To match their musical ingenuity, their alter-egos Chest Rockwell (Paul) and Nathaniel Merriweather (Dan) add humour, and personality to the eclectic mix of soul, hip-hop, rock, reggae-rap and other underground styles.
When you're not laughing at the short skits, you may be astounded at how they wrenched Julee Cruise out of the dark, roped in the ageing John Oates, toyed with Jamie Cullum and got the unsociable Wu Tang's RZA involved. And can you believe the album also features Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, Faith No More's Mike Patton, Jack Johnson, Pharrell Williams, Q-Bert and more. Talk about cameo overdose. But it's all brilliant.