I've never been to Brooklyn. I'm writing this review more than a thousand miles from said borough, and I'm wondering if anything on Radio Free Brooklyn is meant to be heard by the squarest white boy in the country since Lyndon B. Johnson, let alone blasted out of said white boy's car windows. But then again, MC Pete Miser (Pete Ho) is himself an outsider -- a half-Asian b-boy, originally from Portland, Oregon -- and if anything, this loose concept album centering around a split-personality radio station shreds more cultural calling cards than it hands out. It's perfect for insiders and outsiders alike.

The first clue that Miser is up to more than a sometimes old-school, sometimes jazzy and downtempo, sometimes edgy and sparse take on East Coast smooth is thrown out on "Radio Free Brooklyn", a genuinely harrowing account of nuclear holocaust that screams down the campy sci-fi trips of Miser's mainstream peers with its gritty attention to detail and the fact that it isn't afraid of subtle anti-corporate jabs, Mr. Lif-style ("That big bump you felt was what we in the industry call a nuclear attack"). Of course, the track is an allegory for post-9/11 New York, and later, Miser offers up a more literal reflection on the terrorist attacks and their repercussions in "Might Be". But before the image of an airbrushed Bruce Springsteen fading to a heroically dirty firefighter grates on your inner eye, never fear -- Miser is just as skeptical of certain response tactics as many of us are, while his grounded details ("Some talking 'bout the Muslims who run the corner store") spare us the political diatribe and show us a real-life portrait instead.

It turns out that Miser has plenty of other portraits to show -- of his racial consciousness ("Ho-Made"), of consumer lust ("Got That"), of wasting time in central park ("Central Park") -- and while some of his targets and subjects are a bit obvious, Miser avoids pointless rhetoric, implicates himself as part of the problem ("And I got a bad habit of jonesing for the things I never had"), and turns in enough wit and flow to transcend petty ideological gripes. He also has a surprisingly lucid sense of humor, best displayed in "For You", a withering satire of rapper "love" that may or may not have Jay-Z in its sights, and "Toothbrush", a grimly funny account of a break-up ("To make a long story short... / Fuck you and your toothbrush").

If the keep-it-real tone and old-school appreciation of the Def Jux crowd has you addicted or simply impressed, don't leave this immensely talented, DIY-style producer and MC behind. Based on Radio Free Brooklyn, Miser has the history and the skills to make a big mark on a burgeoning independent hip-hop scene.