Themselves, part of the Anticon crew, play underground hip-hop with the confounding lyrical poetry of Doseone's other group, cLOUDDEAD, but without the same approach to ambient sound textures. Vocalist Doseone and producer Jel teamed up originally as Them and released a self-titled full-length in 2000. Reincarnated as Themselves, in September of 2002 the California duo put out The No Music, an ambitious but essentially flat record set to undermine the conventions of hip-hop. A remix of this album, titled No Music of Aiffs, followed soon after, along with the This About the City Too 12". For the next six years Themselves were relatively quiet, until they announced their return in 2009 with theFREEhoudini, a mixtape with appearances by Aesop Rock, Busdriver, and Odd Nosdam, among others. That October, the rap duo's third full-length, Crownsdown, was released. ~ Charles Spano, Rovi