Consumer Guide Album

Juvenile: Reality Check [Atlantic, 2006]
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 fuck 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? B-