A brother-sister duo from Brooklyn, NY, New Breed flaunts their Puerto Rican heritage and street-wise culture on Stop The Music, a powerful debut disc of poetry, imagery, and melody. Using sound blasts in the same manner that a rock guitarist would employ power chords, or an R&B band would punctuate a cut with horn arrangements, New Breed tethers rhythms and harmonic motifs with funky bass samples and an in-the-pocket back-beat that echoes reggae and disco. "Verse Of The City" and Stand profess pride in Macho and Elsie Ortega's ghetto savvy and learning mores while the title track details the political and social climate that affects the underclass, then unexpectedly turns inward towards fellow rappers."Song Speaks" declares the spiritual importance ofrap via jazzy piano riffs, scat singing, and thought provoking stream of conscious dialogue ("we're pros with prose"). The chant of "stop the music" emerges in several instances, but the theme on this collection clearly affirms the opposite. ~ Tom Semioli