MC 900 Ft Jesus ‎– One Step Ahead Of The Spider (1994)

Style: Trip Hop, Downtempo, Conscious
Format: CD, Cass.
Label: American Recordings

Tracklist:
01.   New Moon
02.   But If You Go
03.   If I Only Had A Brain
04.   Stare And Stare
05.   Buried At Sea
06.   Tiptoe Through The Inferno
07.   Gracías Pepé
08.   New Year's Eve
09.   Bill's Dream
10.   Rhubarb

Credits:
Backing Vocals – Analisa Ripke
Bass – Drew Phelps
Congas, Percussion – Mike Dillon
Drums – Earl Harvin, Jr.
Guitar, Keyboards, Trumpet – Mark Griffin
Piano – Dave Palmer
Producer – Mark Griffin
Tabla – Nikhil Pandya
Tambura – Rajiv Chakravarti
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Flute – Chris McGuire

MC 900 Ft Jesus ‎– Welcome To My Dream (1991)

Style: Leftfield, Jazz-Funk, Downtempo, Poetry
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Nettwerk Europe, Play It Again Sam, SPV

Tracklist:
1  Falling Elevators
2  Killer Inside Me
3  Adventures In Failure
4  The City Sleeps
5  O-Zone
6  Hearing Voices In One's Head
7  Dali's Handgun
8  Dancing Barefoot

Credits: Bass – Steve Dirkx Congas, Percussion – Mike Dillon Design, Photography By – Richard Krall Drums – Al Emert Keyboards, Guitar, Trumpet – Mark Griffin Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet – Chris McGuire Turntables – Patrick Rollins Producer – Mark Griffin

The follow-up to Hell With the Lid Off is darker, less cartoonish, and far more influenced by funk and jazz than before (if it weren't for the slightly whiny vocals over top of the opening cut, you might mistake the backing track for something from Miles Davis' fusion period). In a lot of ways, Welcome to My Dream was a precursor to trip-hop, layering hip-hop beats over jazzy breaks and dream-like instrumentation. The problem is tracks like "Killer Inside Me" and "Adventures in Failure": the backing tracks are killer and the delivery of the rhymes are top-notch, but they're ultimately a bit silly, which makes it a bit hard to take the rest of the album seriously. That's a shame because there are some great tracks here, like "The City Sleeps'" and "Falling Elevators." As before, DJ Zero scratches with aplomb. 

Sean Carruthers / AllMusic