I just had a quick chat in the backstage trailer with Memphis aristo-crunk crew Lord T & Eloise, who had just wrapped up their set on the Cellular South Stage. The group has a big month ahead, with a slot on the Centeroo stage at the Bonnaroo festival and the release of their second album, “Chairmen of the Bored.” The boys told me this project represents a step forward.

“We were just working it out as we learned what our niche was,” said Cameron Mann, aka the powder-wigged Lord Treadwell. And that niche was hardcore rap, with ever more confident mic work from Lord T, Eloise (Robert Anthony) and Mister E (Elliot Ives). “The songwriting and the delivery is less goofy,” Mann said. “We’ve gotten a lot more props from the street than we did with the first album (”Aristocrunk”).” That street cred helped bring a host of well-known guests, including Skinny Pimp, 8Ball, Kia Shine, Dirt Nasty and Al Kapone.

Musically, new tracks performed today — like “Middle East,” with its sample of Egyptian Lover’s “Egypt Egypt,” and “Back From the Business Trip” — leave behind the pop flirtings of the first disc and go straight hip-hop, drawing from Memphis crunk as well as newer urban styles like Baltimore club and Chicago floss. Whereas Ives produced the majority of “Aristocrunk,” “Chairmen” brings studio help from North Mississippi Allstar Cody Dickinson, keyboard whiz Pat Fusco, Canadian crew The Volunteers, and the Colorado-by-way-of-Memphis jam band Pnuma Trio. Pnuma, in fact, produced the album’s single, “Untuxedo” featuring 8Ball and Kia Shine.

UPDATE (May 14): I adjusted part of Cameron Mann’s quote a few days after this post.