David Banner (2003)

Released earlier this year, Banner's ''Mississippi: The Album'' was the sound of a grad student -- cum -- rap producer channeling an archetypal Angry Young Thug from the state that gave us the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission (a pro-segregation espionage agency shuttered in 1977). If the concept was more provocative than the record, this ''Screwed & Chopped'' version improves the latter. Southern dub master Michael Watts, working in the style of the late DJ Screw, sloooowwwws down tracks to a bobbing, woozy flow that sometimes stops dead, as if someone collapsed on the turntable. Guaranteed to scare your moms even more than Marilyn Manson. SOUTHERN COOKIN' Check Arrested Development's ''3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of...'' (1992) for a slightly more uplifting take on Southern hip-hop.

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