Fundamentals

Recording information: The Bourbon Room; UTP Studios.
Content baller albums don't come around often, because as The Fundamentals displays, they aren't easy to pull off. Still, with enough hooks to fill a bait shop, Juvenile's 11th studio effort does cross the finish line with the required amount of highlights to recommend to fans, including the "belly's full" anthem "Cradle 2 da Grave," which spits "We ain't got a worry in our head/Whatever beef we had already dead" over its old-school, Southern party rap beat. Elsewhere, "Let Em Know" gives the ladies a moneyed, pre-club pep talk with weave reinforcement included ("Girl, that's your hair, you bought it/So go ahead and flaunt it"), while "Tales from the Hood" isn't brutal, 187 stuff, but a light number filled with slapstick misadventures, like when the cops come because Juvie's big blunt set off the smoke detector. Updating as needed, dubsteppy beats and Neptunes-styled snaps power "Kill Kill," while "Super High" comes rolled in a smooth bit of cloud rap, but this isn't crossover stuff as much as fond memories and happy returns, meaning old-school fans are the ones who should check it. ~ David Jeffries