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Street Signs

Ozomatli

It is time for a revolution.
It is time for another Ozomatli album.
It is time for Street Signs

Street Signs - the band's first full-length studio album in three years and their debut on Real World Records - bears this new Middle Eastern influence out in typical Ozo style, by mixing it into their trademark blend of hip-hop and Latin styles. When the band's original MC Chali 2na (now of Jurassic 5) returns to take centre stage on 'Who's To Blame,' he drops rhymes about 'presidential motorcades' and 'Yakuza tattoos' over a reedy Gnawa trance session complete with tablas and hand-claps. 'Believe,' the album's uplifting opener that looks for hope in destruction, features Veteran Moroccan sintir master Hassan Hakmoun, who's joined by the acclaimed French-Jewish gypsy violinists Les Yeux Noir and The Prague Symphony.

The band invited Eddie Palmieri, the legendary Latin jazz and salsa pianist, to play on 'Nadie Te Tira,' where his gorgeous solo piano lines set off a round of horn-blasted salsa fusion. Along with Palmieri, Hakmoun, Les Yeux Noir, Chali 2na, and the Prague Symphony, their original DJ, Cut Chemist, also joins Ozomatli on 'Dejame en Paz'. There's also the band's new MC Jabu (formerly of 4th Avenue Jones) and guest drummer, Mario Calire (formerly of The Wallflowers).

Throw in a mixologist who's worked with everyone from Justin Timberlake and N.E.R.D. to Michael Jackson and Prince (Serben Ghenea), and engineers who've collaborated with the likes of Beck, Santana, Jack Johnson, and Cypress Hill (Robert Carranza and Anton Pukshansky), and you get what is easily the band's most vibrant and ambitious project to date.

Street Signs at realworldrecords.com