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It has been four long years since their now-classic debut Typical Cats dropped on Chicago hip hop label Galapagos4. Successful solo projects and worldwide tours have only whetted the appetites of the legions of fans eagerly anticipating the follow up. The time has come, and the Cats have a message.

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It has been four long years since their now-classic debut Typical Cats dropped on Chicago hip hop label Galapagos4. Successful solo projects and worldwide tours have only whetted the appetites of the legions of fans eagerly anticipating the follow up. The time has come, and the Cats have a message.

Attention Citizens of Hip Hop (Nation Within a Nation):

We have waged a rebel resistance to that cynical enemy of the listeners and true heads "the Establishment" for decades now. Our enemy, fully aware that the people need beats and rhymes to live, has embarked on a campaign of sonic terrorism, flooding minds and airwaves with pollutants while grudgingly distributing real hip hop in tainted and dwindling doses. In order to combat this toxic status quo and restructure the underground network that is the last hope for our rebel tribes, we have dispatched our most highly skilled team of operatives under the code name Typical Cats . Representatives Qwel, Qwazaar, denizen kane and DJ Natural (along with special delegate Kid Knish) have spent the four years since the last restructuring effort in the field and have now been authorized to administer an emergency plan effective immediately to:

1) Eradicate the underground of the Establishment's clone minions

2) Create an infrastructure with which to bring our Movement above ground

3) Bring an end to the chaos of the warring tribes and effectively bring the disputed territories under rebel control

The science of this nation-building initiative is to be distributed in a disc form entitled Civil Service . The disc will contain explicit and coded information technology capable both of disabling Establishment operatives and activating rebel representatives and stations in one precise deployment. Civil Service is a series of ongoing tasks of utmost importance to the survival and eventual victory of our nation within a nation. In a time of heightened crisis such as this, it is a form of struggle through self-government, a collective orchestration of success as we define it, and our response to the Establishment's shadow war on its own people.

Citizens: Our existence has become conflict itself, and our Enemy interprets our independence as hostility. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our independence is simply an expression of humanity in a bleak and alien environment. We are fulfilling the broken promises of the Establishment. We are the architects of our future, the makers of sound. The Most loves not the boastful. Civil Service for the hopeful.

Peace, the Service.

All songs by Typical Cats. Cuts and Beats by DJ Natural for Harpo Rock Productions. Scratch Sample Wizardry by Kid Knish. Guitar by Seth Abramson on tracks 3,4,5,7,10,13. Keys by Joe Scott on tracks 1,3,4,8,11,12,13. Bass by Dave Innis on tracks 1,3,5,8,9. Mixed by J Marty (with DJ Natural) at Powerhouse Studios, NYC. Mastered by Elliot Thomas at Powerhouse Studios, NYC. Songs recorded at Powerhouse Studios, NYC and Frontline Studios, Chicago. Art Direction & Design by Joshua Grotto. Photography by Kiwamu Omae * Suzy Poling. Executive Producer: DJ Natural & Jeff Kuglich