Pushing his boundaries

When it came time for MTV to choose artists to cover Pearl Jam, a rapper might seem like an unexpected choice.

But when that rapper is P.O.S., it’s only half surprising.

Born Stefon Alexander, P.O.S. spent his upbringing setting roots in hardcore punk. Hip-hop came naturally, but not until much later; it was the melding of both that has earned P.O.S. his status in indie music.

Alexander, who comes to the Knitting Factory Concert House tonight, thought he was staying relatively under the radar. But a call from MTV proved otherwise.

Celebrating the reissue of Pearl Jam’s 1991 breakthrough debut, “Ten,” MTV Networks hosted a tribute showcase last month. Other artists who participated in the project include Hoobastank, William Beckett of The Academy Is …, and Aaron Lewis of Staind.

Alexander’s offering is a dance-electro rendition of “Why Go.”

“I thought it was ridiculous when MTV called,” he said during a telephone interview. “To include a rapper on a list like this is crazy, even though I see myself as a musician, and not just a rapper. Someone must have been paying closer attention than I suspected.”

As P.O.S., Alexander suddenly finds that he is the latest hype in the ever-expanding movement of fusing hip-hop with various forms of rock music.

It’s been done to varying degrees of success by everyone from Kanye West and Mos Def to the Saturday Knights, most recently, and the Beastie Boys before any of them.

But with P.O.S., the synthesis of these traditionally segregated sounds is mastered.

Alexander pushes the thresholds of punk rock’s rough edges and hip-hop’s smooth sides in both his vocal delivery and instrumentation, sing-rapping at times and sampling his own riffs and beats. He knows when to scream over guitars and when to talk to the beat.

P.O.S. has had the ear of independent music with his February release, “Never Better,” his fifth studio album and third for indie-rap empire Rhymesayers Entertainment.

It’s already being called an early candidate for best hip-hop album of the year.

“Never Better” is politically charged and charmingly lighthearted. The album features appearances by his Rhymesayes cohorts, plus Jacksonville ally Astronautalis.

“All I knew is that I didn’t want to make it easy for myself or for the listener when it came to making this album,” Alexander said. “I wanted it to be challenging in the way that the best albums are challenging, where it takes a couple of listens before you can really appreciate it.”

He transcends hip-hop in many ways. For example, one track on “Never Better” is a two-and-a-half-minute drum solo laced with bass and guitar feedback, betraying his punk-rock roots.

While Alexander was growing up in Minneapolis, all of his cousins were flossed out on hardcore hip-hop from the likes of UGK and South Central Cartel, but he was deep into D.C. punk pioneers Minor Threat and Fugazi.

At the time, hip-hop was something he didn’t take seriously, until Mos Def’s “Black on Both Sides” opened his mind to the full potential of hip-hop as a voice for the underrepresented – a quality shared by punk music.

The unlikely marriage of hip-hop and punk “makes sense because there is a lot of the same subject matter in punk rock,” Alexander said.