MC Paul Barman

MC Paul Barman’s musical credentials stray from the beaten path. Few could’ve predicted that a white, Jewish graduate of Brown University would issue one of 2002’s best hip-hop albums, and Paullelujah!, a polychromatic tour through Barman’s cracked cranium, is just that. Too smart for his own good and too horny for anyone else’s, Barman raps like he’s holding a New York Times in one hand and a Penthouse Forum in the other. His geek rhymes range from cynical criticism to pop-culture fantasies. Example: “Cock Mobster,” a shopping list of supermodels, celebrities and underground heroines he’s hoping to get in the sack: I wanna fire blanks in Tyra Banks… I would keep a tidy room for Heidi Klum/I’m immersed in Kirstie Alley’s thirsty valley.