Hip-hop band Strict Flow proudly shows off its 'Burgh roots

World, meet Strict Flow.

After eight years together, the Pittsburgh hip-hop quartet will release its debut CD, "Without Further Ado," on Tuesday at Club Laga. Since the group's single "Don't Stop" peaked on College Music Journal's hip-hop chart in June, Strict Flow has decided it's time to make a formal introduction.

On a recent weekday, the four are talking about it in the conference room of their Downtown office, watching the new video they filmed in Toronto for the song "MOVE!"

"This is an introductory album," lyricist Masai Turner says.

"This is an album to describe who we are."

"Without Further Ado" is driving, live hip-hop, layered with punchy synth and guitar samples. Turner and fellow rapper Sied Chahrour come out swinging, barely pausing for air as they spout old-fashioned hip-hop braggadocio left and right:

I satisfy the crowd even though my throat's sore/By demonstrating talent you could only hope for.

See, I was born on the corner of Craft and Forbes/The type of cat to take your titles and pass the boards.

Like the boasting, hometown references permeate "Without Further Ado," Turner, Chahrour, and DJs and producers Eric Dan and Chad Glick want Strict Flow to be the first name dropped when anyone talks about Pittsburgh hip-hop.

Turner, Chahrour and Glick met at Taylor Allderdice High School. Dan, a Brashear High School graduate, met Glick in college.

"I guess you can say Christina Aguilera's from Pittsburgh," Chahrour says. "She always says, 'Yo, I'm from Wexford.' She doesn't say Pittsburgh. We definitely are the people who hang out at Mineo's (in Squirrel Hill)."

"We're not on a crusade for Pittsburgh, but that's where we're from," Turner adds. "I can't imagine saying we're from anywhere else."

They know better than to put on airs. They're Pittsburghers, so by default they're realists.

"We can't talk about our (Mercedes) Benz, because we don't got 'em," Glick says. "We don't talk about our guns because we don't carry 'em."

"I would talk about having a Benz," Turner says. "But if we start talking about our Benzes, you'll know we've earned it."

For now, they're paying dues. Strict Flow often opens for national artists at Pittsburgh shows, recently warming up crowds for Ja Rule, Jurassic 5 and Nelly. The group headlined the 17-city PA's Finest Tour, showing off Pittsburgh talent throughout the Northeast.

Strict Flow is a totally do-it-yourself act, refusing to depend on record labels for help for anything other than album distribution. The act runs its own label, Authentic Recordings, promotes its own shows and aggressively promotes the band full-time.

Old acquaintances who left the hip-hop scene years ago see Turner on the street and ask, "You still rap?"

"Like it's a hobby," Turner says.

Artists gave up all around him. But Strict Flow plans to record its next album by summer, and will head to Europe and Japan for a tour this year, along with another PA's Finest tour and, it hopes, the Warped Tour.

As the hook in the song "As Good As It Gets" explains:

"Nothing change, y'all, but the beat, hook and lyrics/We keep it moving till the whole world's looking convinced."