Dreams Of Sex And Flying

Dreams Of Sex And Flying finds Milwaukee rap group The Hollowz sneaking fries off the lunch trays of Eminem and Atmosphere. Luckily, MC Logic and especially producer Edward Cayce pump just enough personality into their latest opus to compensate for the pilfered bipolar dynamics. Logic’s wobbly, wall-crawling delivery helps to nullify groan-worthy lines like, “My balls so blown off the nugs I’m puffin’ / I don’t care about your rolls, girl / I just want your muffin” from “Your Place (Or Mine ... No Yours).” The emotionally unstable rapper doesn’t revel in this level of confidence for more than a few couplets at a time, however; on “Group Therapy,” Logic delves into his struggles with alcoholism and addiction, finishing off with a suicidal gun blast.

What swoops in to save DOSAF from its own melodrama is the production by Cayce, who uses everything from chipmunk-speed soul samples (“Hangin’ On”), to 8-bit nostalgia (“Your Place”), to the Jel-esque atmospherics found on the instrumental title track. No matter how inconsistent (but generally clever) Logic is with his wordplay, Cayce always keeps the tracks sounding fresh. The duo truly finds its stride when it ditches the extremes of sex ’n’ weed clichés and self-deprecation for more grounded territory, like on album highlight “Sow The Seed,” where Logic seeks closure with his deceased friends and father. It’s a bit unbalanced, but DOSAF offers rewards to listeners who work through the entire album.