Some rappers lionize outlaw legends like Scarface; some rappers style themselves as street-smart CEOs. For his latest LP, Mathias took to the high seas and, with his aptly named crew the Pirates, set himself up as a verbal swashbuckler. Last year's Life of the Buzzard hit hard with old-school beats, but it was smoothed out with the help of vocalist Ms. Vizion, who serves as an oft-calming foil to Mathias' more fiery verses. Songs like"Sea Shanty in D-Minor" and"The Ballad of Old Long Ben" underline the high-seas/high-adventure motif, but Mathias isn't interested in putting on costumes or playing dress-up -- it's simply a new way to present the message he has been preaching for well over a decade.-Christian Schaeffer, Riverfront TimesFormer Earthworms member Mathias treads tricky ground on this release, his second with the Pirates. On"Jack Palance" he decries the modernity of Twitter, Justin Bieber and hipsters while celebrating the golden era of hip-hop. But there are few overt nods to the old-school in