An "open" microphone is another term for an amateur showcase, and underground DJ Blu here provides a forum for a batch of potentially up-and-coming rappers. As might be expected, the talents on display are at varying levels of competence. Tribe of Levi, for example, sound just about ready for prime time on "The Dance," while the members of ScienZe seem to be reciting their first-ever rhymes, without much sense of what's going on around them, in "Taking the Day Off." The most consistently interesting aspect of the album, however, is the backgrounds. Blu can construct tracks out of a combination of found sounds, odd musical elements, and voices, and they range from the keyboard-inflected "Gotta Be Free" and "Twenty Seven" to the soulful "Remember Me" and the jazzy "Brown Sucre." Blu himself speaks of "switching from independents to majors" on "Steel Remains (Raw)," and that's what he may be doing in the not-so-far-off future.