Almost Urban

Almost Urban, the Austin American Statesman's latest entry on its incredible blogroll, covers the burgeoning hip-hop scene in Central Texas (see the entry below on Assasyn Dynasty). A.U. is blogged by an engaging, intelligent young woman named Deborah Sengupta, who is not your typical MTV-type reporter. Her articles are incisive, thoughtful, and in no way sycophantic or cliche'd. She treats the subject and the musicians with the dignity and respect that they are due, and in doing so, at long last validates the genre in the Austin music scene.

It's about time Austin expanded its musical awareness to acknowledge the hip-hop genre, And Deborah Sengupta does so with style and grace in Almost Urban.