Like OutKast’s flagship Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and Isaac Hayes’ soul odyssey “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic” before it, Elespee and Prospek’s Quantumetaphysicadillac Music pushes musical boundaries and puts the urban landscape in perspective.

“Morality’s a luxury / Survival is a must,” Elespee raps over a woozy, nostalgic jazz-funk groove in the opening verse of “Milk & Honey,” a song that sizes up Social Darwinism and the state of the recording industry. The following number, “Michelle and Oprah,” offers a more graphic—though no less thought provoking—depiction: “Bitches ain’t shit except Michelle and Oprah / Niggas ain’t shit until you see them on a poster.”

Prospek, undeniably New Orleans’ most innovative beatmaker, brings out the best and sometimes the beast in his longtime partner. The streetwise, spaced-out sonics of “NOLAterrestrials,” rev up Elespee’s intergalactic Caddy as he cruises around the cosmos and the Crescent City. Midway, as Elespee and fellow N.O. emcee City Sparks trade metaphors, the soulful ride of “Manifest, Progress, Expand,” recalls College Dropout-era Kanye. Later, a gritty, driving funk track paves the way through the potent Jon Mercure-assisted “Music for All Occasions.”

With few hooks, Quantumetaphysicadillac Music delivers a heady, hypnotic dose of raw hip-hop that is as aurally intoxicating as it is mind opening. Elespee’s lyrical analogy from the hard-hitting rhyme fest “Golden Era” sums it up: “Welcome back to that feeling you got from Midnight Marauders / Blowing smoke at your ceiling in your room, dorm, or apartment when hip-hop was appealing / The essence of where it started ‘fore we all started dealing.”

Unlike its predecessors, this set will probably never surface on the mainstream radar. Be that as it may, Elespee and Prospek’s combustible chemistry is a force to be reckoned with on the underground scene.