The problem with most compilations (and soundtracks) is that they are entirely too scattered, trying to create a “diverse” sound, which in turn does nothing but make everyone only like half of the album (each arguing about which half is best). Rather than employing several different types of artists, Def Jux has carved a niche for this album, as well as the label itself. Delving right back into the iron galaxy first revealed on Cannibal Ox’s The Cold Vein, Definitive Jux Presents II introduces the world to the extended families of the Weathermen, MHz, and Atoms Families, brining aboard a few strays in the form of Mr. Lif, Murs, Aesop Rock, and Rob Sonic.

“Same As It Never Was” sets the album off, establishing each of the Weathermen, with show-stealing rhymes from El-P (which may be offensive to asexual dynamos), but is actually only a preview of what’s to come, as the greater meat is within the album itself. Each of the Weathermen get greater moments in the spotlight on their respective solo cuts: Y@k Ballz makes his proper introduction on the previously released 12″ flavor, “Freak Show”, while Camu Tao delivers Midwest thug-attitude, packed with battle-braggadocio, over a dirty-dragon beat from Przm on “Hold The Floor”; and Masai Bey attacks with similar aggravated-assault and 80′s emcee charisma for the future of an artform “judged on some jam from some clown, thus I gotta come in, luggin’ a first aid kit,” over a ridiculoid El-P banger on “Paper Mache”. Even iller is Living Legends’ Murs and Boston’s Mr. Lif, teaming up like they were born to be in a group (hint), ripping open El’s metal explosions on “Sneak Preview”, not to mention the team-up of El and Vast getting Tina Yothers ugly on “Dr. Hell Know And The Praying Mantis”. But the album’s crowning achievement is “Stepfather Factory”, an incredibly disturbing glimpse into an eerie A.I. like future of Superdads that last all summer long, powered only on booze-batteries.

Besides the rampant quality that runs through Definitive Jux Presents II, the greatest thing about this album is its cohesion, found even on RJD2′s instrumental track, “I Really Like Your Def Jux Baby Tee”. Even on some of the tracks with lesser recognizable emcees, it’s easier to get to know them thanks to the unified sound of the album (save Lif & Opio’s “Fulcrum (Insight Mix)”, which seems a bit out of place). While this is the type of record that creates arguments between underground and commercial hip-hop listeners, Co Flow’s old adage still rings true, looming over the entire spectrum of this release, this is a representation of what hip-hop music can and should be.