The Senior in Bloomington, MN

During
hip-hop
's reign at the top of the charts, a clever turn of catch phrase has often translated into multi-platinum sales, from
"It's All About the Benjamins"
to
"Get Ur Freak On"
"Hot in Herre."
Ginuwine
's fourth album finds the
R&B
jack-of-all-trades attempting to get in on the game with tracks that mine
urban
lingo for potential hit combinations, from the golddigger dis track
"Chedda Brings"
to the club-life jam
"Hell Yeah"
to the partly self-explanatory
"In Those Jeans"
(as in "Is there any more room for me?"). As before,
rises above most of his dozens of imitators in the
contemporary R&B
realm, with a set of productions -- from the returning
Troy Oliver
-- that fit his voice perfectly and rate as slightly edgier than the norm. Also unsurprising compared to his work from the past is
exploring all aspects of love, moving from the explicitly carnal (
"Sex,"
with
Sole
) to a poignantly paternal song (
"Our First Born"
) within just a few minutes. After a parade of sexed-up
, though, it's refreshing to hit a pair of straight-ahead
rap
tracks near the end;
Method Man
lends his usual thug drawl to the excellent
"Big Plans,"
while
R. Kelly
and
Clipse
add some spark to a remix of
"Hell Yeah."
~ John Bush