iSound

Andreus--a.k.a. Deandrias Abdullah, a native of the South Side ghetto--has already gained European acclaim for his hip-hop-soul symphony, "Street Troubadour" (Dialogue Group). It was released overseas as essentially a home demo in 2002, then domestically re-released with a handful of new tracks and spiffier production. It merges inner-city blues laments about drugs, gangs and wayward youth with wah-wah guitars, keyboard funk and shimmering string orchestrations. Andreus' first musical love was hip-hop. "At age 7, hearing the first rap tunes coming out of the East, it took over the 'hood--it was like an A-Bomb that blew up our culture," says Andreus. "I started writing lyrics and battle-rhyming on the street corners. We were children of Vietnam veterans looking for some music to call our own, and this was it." Many of the songs on "Street Troubadour" were improvised in front of the microphone, Andreus pouring out a lifetime of observations ab...