Fetti Profoun

The name Fetti Profoun is a horrible hip-hop handle, but the hooks here are hot as hell. The CD opens with audio clips from news stations, spliced together to sound like a big, controversial story about the Phoenix-based Fetti, and then busts into the title track with hydraulic-bumpin’ beats and suspenseful synths, where Fetti proclaims, “Most of the time, I’m just high, bullshittin’ my lines.” The next song, “Jumpin’ Off,” aspires to be a crunk club cut but comes off as imitative. It’s not as good as some of his other tunes, like the grimy “In da Lead,” in which Fetti shows off his skills by spittin’ slant rhymes and syllables over a thick, thumping club beat and funky saxophone samples. There’s a bit of everything here — crunk, grime, club, street, intellectual tip-shit — all wrapped up in crisp production. Not every track is impressive, but there’s more than a handful of gems here, topped by “Tent City,” in which Fetti pens a scathing letter to Sheriff Joe Arpaio, including snipes like “You crooked as fuck, let me search your apartment/Let me see what you got stashed in your glove compartment.” Fetti’s friends Stress da Arson, L.C., Phoenix, Cyph, Winston Williams, Redzone, and Phaze all join the jams here, helping to make Valley Fever one of the most impressive hip-hop debuts to come out of the Southwest in years. — Niki D’Andrea