8ball Light Up the Bomb [PA]

Personnel: 8Ball (rap vocals); Dirtbag, Juvenile, MJG (rap vocals).
If the title wasn't obvious enough, the cover photo of 8Ball lost in a haze of blunt smoke should clue the listener in to the general vibe of Light Up the Bomb. Straight up Dirty South party rap, this album makes few claims to cultural significance: the solid single "Time2hitdaclub," which makes odd use of a sample of the Windows "blue screen of death" noise as its main hook, is the closest 8Ball comes to a manifesto here, and the skit "Barney Phife," with 8Ball's interactions with a stereotypical Southern cop, is the most obvious social commentary. Light Up the Bomb does the job as background entertainment, with its heavy synthed-out beats and electronic hooks, but it's a relatively uninspired outing from a rapper who has done better work in the past. In keeping with current hip-hop fashion, Light Up the Bomb is also available in the modern-day equivalent of dub, a chopped and screwed edition that slows the tracks down by about 25 percent to mimic the effect of a cough syrup high. ~ Stewart Mason

• Format: CD
• Genre: R&B