Juvenile

"I'm just trying to live/I lost it all in Katrina…F*ck Fox News/I don't listen to y'all/Couldn't get a n*gg* off a roof," NOLA emcee Juvenile raps on "Get Your Hustle On." It's a testament to Juvenile's strength as a rapper that he oscillates from that track's gritty ghetto politics to singing about a girl with a "loose booty." Call it post-apocalyptic NOLA bounce.

Juvenile gives better interview than former N.O. labelmate Lil Wayne and appears to be a better guy, but he's also one more bore whose idea of entertainment is threatening to kill people. A few moments seem real enough--not just "I Know You Know," in which he reminds his wife that, actually, he doesn't f*ck all those hoes he raps about, but the street-mystique primer "Way I Be Leanin'." And even there Mike Jones, Paul Wall, and Wacko provide welcome relief from the nasal, constricted, humorless flow he's gotten on. Later, Fat Joe does the same. I mean, really--Fat Joe? (Grade - B-)