Macromantics holds the mic like a grudge.

That would be Macromantics (AKA Romy Hoffman). Granted, she’s the only Oz XX-chromosomed MC I’ve ever listened to, but hear me out. As a 15-year-old, Macromantics played guitar with Ben Lee’s Noise Addict. While touring in America with that band, she got hooked on hiphop. Her list of influences on her MySpace page includes “Patti Smith, Lydia Lunch, Nas, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Dylan Thomas, Lester Bangs, O.D.B, Eve Libertine, Wu Tang Clan, Kathleen Hanna, Iggy Pop.” Most impressive.

Macro is set to release her debut album, Moments in Movement (Kill Rock Stars), on January 23. After a few listens, you’ll probably conclude that the most obvious comparison is Lady Sovereign, but Macro exhibits more depth, gravity, and complexity in her lyrics than does her British counterpart. Macro’s flow possesses much internal rhyming that’s often as knottily metered as Eminem’s clever, quick-jawed declamations. She’s verbose (her CD booklet contains 10 pages of tiny-fonted lyrics for 11 tracks), but there’s little filler in her lexical deluge. For a young rapper, Macro displays remarkable authority and precise, varied metrics. I like this passage from “Bandwagon”:

Macro. What more can I say then I’m laconic/Shy and torrid, I like the Sonics and my logic’s hyperbolic/This here’s backlash, but different to Susan Faludi/My music makes your brain dance/Till y’all are bruising your booty/Catapult rap revolt math assault on a broken calculator/Pen hits the page and it sounds like a POW! to paper/Wow invader whose photographic memory be spittin magenta/Hundred percent heart felt dark tells, no hidden agenda

There’s plenty more from where that came from. And she ain’t a bad singer, either, when the occasion calls for it.

The production on Moments in Movement is handled by Buchman, Joker 70, Yoko Solo, and Tekromantik, who buttress her witty, contortionist verses with brilliantly punchy, post-grime funk that gives conventionality a wide berth.

I wonder what Jay-Z would make of this…