MUSIC: Newbies and Vets in R&B

New to the female hip hop game is teenage rapper Lil Mama. Jive Records signed Niatia Kirkland, a Brooklyn native, putting a lot of green on her. She has a certain MC Lyte attitude with Left Eye-TLC rhymin skills. Kirkland erupts from the new trend of cutesy underaged rappers coming out with songs made to dance to. For example, 19-year-old DJ Webstar and 17-year-old Young B released that so-bad-it's-catchy "Chicken Noodle Soup" last year. Lil Mama's single "Lip Gloss" doesn't have a built in dance to it, but its triviality is just as obvious. She is now recording an album Voice of the Young People that'll most likely feature similar songs that the kids will feel truly represent their generation. The song gets better past the blatant product placement that she swears isn't connected to any kind of endorsement deal. There's a break in the song, where instead of a background track there's just clapping and she rhymes to it. Watch the video. R. Malcolm Jones is coming into his own as a music video director.

Speaking of Eve, she's finally back from her acting hiatus after her self-titled show on UPN--as well as UPN--was booted. She's coming back in a big way though. In her first single "Tambourine" off of her fourth album Here I Am, she starts off the summer right. This will surely be on repeat at the clubs. Her other single "Cash Flow" with T.I. isn't as catchy. In fact, her rhyming is staccato and kind of annoying, but some people might find it genius. Here's hoping the rest of the album is Einstein-infused.

While we're on the subject of summer hits. Chris Brown hasn't exactly been wow-ing me since his first single "Run It." I thought his last/5th single "Poppin" was boring. Oh how original, another seduction song from a preteen who couldn't please a woman even if he had a map to the clitoris. But his latest, "Wall to Wall," could grow on me. It has the same spirit as "Run It" and it's good for a party--which, let's face it, is exactly what Brown's songs are good for. He has a long way to go till he can get girls to replay his ballads like it's their life soundtrack like they do with NeYo, Justin Timberlake, and Usher. Honestly, what he needs is more life experience. Otherwise, he's just going to run out of things to sing about. There's going to be a point where singing about girls wanting you is going to get old...quick.