Northern State

One of the most fun party records of the year, Dying in Stereo offers the old-school, B-girl rhymes and bass-heavy bounce of Northern State, three suburban white girls from the wilds of Long Island. Guinea Love, DJ Sprout and Hesta Prynn (the best emcee tag I’ve heard in years) kick it just like female Beastie Boys, and the results are similarly infectious. Their rock-the-party mike philosophy is carried by catchy, dub-like samples and inspiring choruses influenced by hip-hop classics. Rarely do you hear straight-ahead rap (“it’s like dum de dum de dee, 1, 2, 3”) that has so much fun juggling topics, from “working for the president’s wife,” to getting hit on, to foreign policy (“you can learn a lot from the opposite sex”). Can’t wait to see how these ladies fare in a mostly male-dominated field.