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After a brief, and seemingly turbulent, stint with famed indie label Stones Throw (for the EP Worthnothings and the album Olesi: Fragments of an Earth), Georgia Anne Muldrow took some time to herself to figure out what her next step would be. On the surface it may have seemed foolish to be stepping away from the highly touted label, but it proved to be the right move as she quickly found common ground with like-minded space-funk pioneer Declaime (aka Dudley Perkins), who was also experiencing similar troubles with Stones Throw. Together they went on to create an impressive catalogue of forward-thinking hip-hop albums that went miles (or in their case, galaxies) away from where their careers had originally started. Their influence on each other has been profound (almost on the same vibe as Andre 3000 and Erykah Badu) , and Georgia hasn't been shy about citing Declaime, as not only the love her life, but the driving force behind her recent creative surge. For her last album, Kings Ballad (released by Ubiquity Records), Georgia takes on a more musically ambitious approach, scaling back on the far-out philosophies in order to focus on the production end of things. Overall it's a more listener-friendly effort, and it'll likely be the album that breaks her free from the niche neo-soul market that's kept her under wraps for way too long. (J. Min)