Six months ago, Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton was one half of little-known LA hip-hop duo DM & Jemini. Then he merged Jay-Z's Black Album with the Beatles' White Album to create The Grey Album. Targeted by EMI, it became the most talked-about unreleased record in recent years and landed Burton and his grey mouse suit everywhere from Time magazine to CNN.

Tonight, however, he's back to the day job, for reasons as much legal as creative - you can imagine a stern phalanx of Beatles lawyers backstage, ready to pounce on any copyright infraction.

DM & Jemini are jovially old-fashioned, dropping into covers of Run-DMC and the Fugees and instructing sectors of the audience to say "Yo!" It's fun but familiar.

The event, a showcase for British-based leftfield hip-hop label Lex Records, begins three hours earlier with Prince Po. He started out in underrated 1990s rap group Organized Konfusion, and his charm frequently cracks to reveal the indignant impatience of someone who never got his dues. Before starting one track for a third time he snaps, "I don't think you're listening," like a disappointed teacher chiding an inattentive class.

Sage Francis is surely the first MC ever to ask his audience: "Do you guys listen to the Byrds?" He's certainly the first to do so while wearing a floor-length hooded smock andeye mask. His rhymes are bizarre (he re-enacts a scratch DJ contest between the sun and the moon) and his samples unorthodox (the Cocteau Twins, Mr Mister), but he's ultimately too smart-alecky, as if Dave Eggers had invented a rapper for a joke.

All of the above are overshadowed by veteran producer Prince Paul (De La Soul, Stetsasonic) and his jaw-dropping DJ set. In the space of an hour he gives a high-speed hip hop history lesson, starting with the soul and funk staples of late-1970s block parties and ending with Busta Rhymes and Dr Dre. The night belongs to a DJ after all - just not the one in the mouse suit.

· At The Venue, Edinburgh, tonight. Box office: 0131 557 3073.