The 3 Titans, Khalil Jackson, Jorden Plaines, and Dallas Ill, are rhythmically gifted 5th-graders with their sights set on higher education. On their debut 7" for Dunham Records, "C-O-L-L-E-G-E" b/w "Life of a Scholar", the precocious eleven-year-olds trade rhymes about the benefits of going to college and the determination it takes to get there over two sides of old-school, hard-as-nails (and refreshingly sample-free) beats provided by the notorious Menahan Street Band. The hooks are contagious hand-thrower-uppers, the breaks are spinecracking head-bobbers, and the raps are executed with a cool almost lackadaisical simplicity that evokes the playful cadences of early hip-hop, before rhymes and rhythms became overshadowed by egos and jewelry. The often imitated, never replicated, drums of Homer Steinweiss lay a solid bottom on the track, over which the young Titans play off each other with ease, each threading their verses masterfully between the others' and leaning into their individual styles with a natural confidence and lyricism that makes their lessons easy to memorize.
