Nobody who didn't want money from him ever said he could rap, but he did have a spirit and a community, both now gone--one because it's harder to stay human on top than to act human getting there, the other because anointing Biggie your coproducer doesn't make him any less gone. Wallowing in otiose thug fantasies and bathetic hater-hating, hiring big names who collect their checks and go, he is indeed hateful if not altogether devoid of musical ideas. And for inducing a cute-sounding little-sounding girl to pronounce the words "hit-makin', money-havin', motherfuckin' pimp" he should be taken to Family Court. C+

Nobody who didn't want money from him ever said he could rap, but he did have a spirit and a community, both now gone--one because it's harder to stay human on top than to act human getting there, the other because anointing Biggie your coproducer doesn't make him any less gone. Wallowing in otiose thug fantasies and bathetic hater-hating, hiring big names who collect their checks and go, he is indeed hateful if not altogether devoid of musical ideas. And for inducing a cute-sounding little-sounding girl to pronounce the words "hit-makin', money-havin', motherfuckin' pimp" he should be taken to Family Court. C+