Busdriver

Over the course of the past decade, and with four highly innovative — and sadly underrated — indie albums, L.A.-based hip-hop artist Busdriver built a reputation in the underground by spitting poignant rhymes with a sense of humor set against fiercely danceable street beats and eclectic instrumentation. He never seems to stop working, either — he just released his fourth album, Fear of a Black Tangent, last year, and now he’s already got another album, RoadKillOvercoat, set for release on Epitaph/Anti in January 2007, and some hot new wax in the 12-inch single “Kill Your Employer (Recreational Paranoia Is the Sport of Now),” which drops Tuesday, October 10. The track includes lines like “Armpit hair stickin’ out like a sore thumb/Smellin’ like dinosaur dung,” and springy beats that bounce ya knees. Busdriver keeps it real, too; currently in the midst of a 22-city tour, the lauded lyricist still posts bulletins to his MySpace Friends list when he’s performing in a city and needs a place to crash — kind of a shame, because Busdriver really is the shit. But at least when he hits the fan, no one can call him an “overnight success.”