The bump of Rio Baile Funk–More Favela Booty Beats will sound familiar to anyone who has pounced around the house to the M.I.A. record. A compilation documenting the dance music of the Rio ghetto, the first Rio Baile Funk (along with Diplo’s DJ must-have-mix Favela on Blast) put the genre…

1. Emergency & I The Dismemberment Plan DeSoto Records Imagine Talking Heads, Prince, and Fugazi forming a musical think-tank in order to make a sassy, astoundingly literate, infinitely danceable masterwork. 2. “Heartbreaker” 12-inch remix Mariah Carey featuring Da Brat & Missy Elliott Sony Records I hate Mariah Carey, but this…

Last year, Lauryn Hill managed to do the impossible: make an album consisting of virtually everything that’s missing from most popular music as of late. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, her first recording outside the Fugees camp, was as fierce as it was emotionally raw, deep as it was danceable,…