On his fantastic new Sonic Jihad, Bay Area rapper Paris ties together blasts at George Bush (II), the current and seemingly permanent war in Iraq, and U.S. imperialism with blistering commentary on the ongoing pimping/degradation of black folk and culture — as committed by Negroes and others. Like Badu, he blends humor into the mix, but it's of the most arid variety. Blink and you miss it. You don't laugh so much as nod and go, "Oh, shit." (Actually, there's a chuckle in the artwork of the CD's inner sleeve, in which Shrub is cast as Damien from The Omen.) Paris’ career was momentarily derailed more than 10 years ago when "Bush Killa," his verbal slaying of the elder Bush on 1992's Sleeping With the Enemy CD, drew controversy. Now that history's repeating itself, so is Paris.

This time, he's couched Jihad in the vintage West Coast, G-funk grooves he first employed with 1994's Guerrilla Funk. Cameos by Public Enemy, Dead Prez, Capelton and Kam flesh out the rapper's call-to-arms thesis. So do snippets from newscasts and man-on-the-street interviews. On "Sheep to the Slaughter," an unidentified male voice asks, "Are we setting up a situation where young people who are just starting to come of age are gonna have no choice but to join the military, where there seems to be a lot of money, or go to prison, where there seems to be a lot of money?" Paris takes up the baton and rips a new asshole for celebrity warmongers. "Who do the fighting for these rich white folks and their wars? No, it ain't Dennis Miller, Fox News, Mike Savage or Rush . . . It ain't Ted Nugent, ’cause in war, targets got weapons, too.”