Styles of Beyond doesn't make your average, everyday rap songs. With the impending millennium staring us all in the face, Ryu and Takbir, the two incredible gifted MCs that make up the LA-based hip-hop group, are fearlessly looking right back at the big, bad Y2K; vigorously spitting rapid-fire, action-packed rhymes right in its ear. SOB's debut album "2000 Fold" is a fresh and innovative approach to creating "extreme" hip-hop music that creatively spans genres, suggesting that there's no group better equipped to carry us into the future.

SOB's first single was 1997's independently-released "Killer Instinct" on Bilawn Records. The energetic, video game-based song also featured hip-hop legend Divine Styler, a longtime friend of Takbir. (Tak's older brother Bilal Bashir has produced for Ice T, Everlast and Divine Styler, along with a couple of songs for SOB, including "2000 Fold's" outstanding title track.) With a hype, uptempo energy unusual in today's midtempo world of hip-hop mix shows, the adrenaline-pumping "Killer Instinct" managed to attract a staggering amount of positive attention from a wide range of music-loving critics, from the ones that work at magazines to the ones who simply hang out at record stores.

Styles of Beyond kicked off 1999 by signing to Hi-Ho Records, the label founded by the Dust Brothers, producers of the critically acclaimed, groundbreaking Beastie Boys album, Paul's Boutique. With a fresh and exciting energy that is sadly lost in the majority of today's rap, combined with an open-minded, innovative approach to making music, Styles of Beyond is the group to take hip-hop into the year 2000. And beyond.