Anyone who followed underground Hip Hop in 2000 remembers being enthralled by Mind Over Matter, Zion I's widely-praised debut album. Hip Hoppers couldn't get enough of the indie group's compelling combination of space-age sounds, perceptive lyrics and all-around creativity. Seven years later, the Cali representatives are once again the topic of discussion among Hip Hop's subterranean followers with the release Street Legends, a DJ Rick Lee-helmed mix CD. With Amp Live once again handling production duties and Zion resuming his role as the "copper tone chiller with the little kid voice," the duo is set to keep fans talking about the backbone of Heroes in the City of Dope.

Unfortunately for Zion I, its followers will likely focus on the group's misguided foray into hyphy - the frenetic music-based culture that has defined the Bay Area in recent years. Amp Live and Zion's decision to embrace the dominant sound in their community is understandable but still strange and ill-fated. It makes no sense that a group heavily-praised for its inventive music and rich content would experiment with a genre that typically doesn't come close to matching the substance of their previous work. Though "Roll On Out," featuring hyphy forefather Mac Dre, may spark some show stopping in Oakland, Zion I's attempts at going dumb are otherwise out-of-place. "Do That Thang" falls well short of the standards the group has set set, and the ringtone-ready synths of "Loose Your Head" digs the hyphy hole even deeper. The stunna-shade-induced madness only worsens when Zion says, "Stunt now, you gon' pay later/Big booty girl, that's a black man's savior."

Zion I later rediscovers its comfort zone and returns to form with quality joints like "Family Business." The intoxicating remix to "Sorry," packing a reworked composition of spirit-tingling flutes and a new chorus, also illustrates how exceptional the duo can be when it makes great music without trying to keep pace with emerging trends. They sound even more organic on the highly-observant "Oxygen." Amp Live's bouncy soundscape, featuring a sped-up vocal sample and multi-layered keyboard sounds, provides the motivation for a rejuvenated performance from his rap counterpoint. He helps rekindle the fire that wanes in early in the mix CD when Zion raps, "But boys turn to men, and men to savages/According to U.S. statistics and averages/And so we grew up with these hopes and dreams/ Like the world didn't label us as dopes and fiends."

There are several more great songs for DJ Rick Lee to juggle, including the chopped-up keys of "Critical," the Aceyalone-assisted "Cheeba Cheeba" and the rap-game-as-crack-game extended metaphor of "Club Servin'." But many of those great songs have already appeared on previous releases like 2003's Deep Water Slang V2.0, so why create a new release and tack on music first heard four years ago? That decision seems especially peculiar considering that Zion I is a critically-acclaimed group frequently praised for its forward-thinking music. Street Legends finds the duo trapped between holding on to its celebrated past and trying to keep up with its cultural present. In the end, Zion I fails at completing either feat, causing its latest effort to be anything but legendary.