Yesterday (Oct 28th), with exactly one week to go before the most crucial presidential election in recent American history and at a time when the nation is in its worst economic state in many long decades, emcee Paris' new album Acid Reflex (Guerrilla Funk - Fontana - Universal) arrived in Amoeba Music and other stores across this troubled nation.

For the ever-politically outspoken Bay Area hip-hop artist, whose two-decade long career has been a series of confrontations with the establishment, the timing seems perfect to unleash this lyrically charged new album, the latest in a series of incendiary releases that include the post 9/11 Sonic Jihad and the 1992 album Sleeping With The Enemy, featuring the highly controversial song "Bush Killa" which resulted in him getting him booted off the Warner Brothers distributed Tommy Boy Records at the time.

The new Paris album, Acid Reflex, which tackles just about every issue and problem facing America today, is not only (in my opinion) the best, most lyrically engaging album of this year, but it is also one that harks back to a forgotten time in hip-hop when the genre was rich with high-profile artists who used the medium as a platform for social and political debate. I recently sat down with Paris to talk about the state of hip-hop today & his history as an artist, his label Guerrilla Funk, the economy, next week's election, and other issues addressed in the new album Acid Reflex, including the current trend in America of scapegoating immigrants.  Here's what he had to say.