Om Hip Hop unleashes its most visionary, groundbreaking and (quite possibly) controversial release to date. Rise Up, the long-awaited album from veteran underground emissaries Zeph and Azeem, offers thirteen tracks (and two interludes) worth of consciousness-lifting metaphors, party-rocking beats, and undiluted, 100% rebel music from one of hip-hop's most slept-on duos. Azeem has a strong lyrical background.He's a champion slam poet as well as a performance artist/playwright.He spits soulful, jazz-tinged metaphysics on "Alpha Zeta." He draws on his Caribbean ancestry over a rock steady-meets-SoulSonic Force groove on the title track "Rise Up". He flips even more West Indian cultural flavor on "Time to Wake Up," alongside roots chanter Tony Moses and Quannum songbird Joyo Velarde. Zeph, an in-demand club DJ who's been active on the remix circuit for years, in addition to producing two solo albums (Sunset Scavenger and DJ Zeph, self titled), matches Azeem's versatility beat-for-beat and track-for-track, showing why he's the best-kept secret behind the boards since Diamond D. Though Zeph and Azeem have been working together since 2001's #1 college radio hit "Rubber/Glue," they have had their share of highs & lows in the music industry. Rise Up their best work to date! Old-school 808 bass drops, retro-funk, tasteful turntable cuts, dub-influenced treatments, African and Latin melodies, and loads of subtle musical elements make Rise Up well worth listening to, even if it wasn't saying something that means something (which it is, in caseyou were wondering).