*** Juvenile

THA G CODE

(Cash Money/Universal)

On Juvenile's fourth album, Cash Money house producer Mannie Fresh blunts some of his trademark edges. Beats that might ordinarily sound like a rottweiler making love to a PlayStation here ooze out somewhat more shmoovely -- think of a zooted Model 500 playing the Love Unlimited Orchestra catalogue at a strip-club sound check. The liner notes credit a real live bass player, and the apparently live acoustic guitar on "Fuck That Nigga" ripples so mellifluously, it could be Babyface's -- if Babyface penned murder ballads for jewel-encrusted-Humvee lessors. Elsewhere, the neck-wrecking NASA-countdown samples and wobbling test-tone scratches are looser-limbed, and some of the drum lines (on "Something Got 2 Shake" and "Get It Right," for example) allude to the New Orleans brass ensembles that have taken to covering BG's "Bling Bling" and Juvie's hit "Back That Azz Up." A Cash Money album where the lyrics can hold their own against the production remains an elusive prospect; for now, Juvenile's content is all game, dames, and ghetto thangs, rhyming "Tiger Woods, but I won't" with "Eat no pussy, 'cuz I don't" and "vivrant thing" with "Burger King" (would Q-Tip be scandalized?) and using words as aural analogues for the bricks, clips, Glocks, and gloves in his crew's toolbox. When he barks, "Where you from, motherfucker, where you from," it's both a territorial challenge and a fierce flash of roots-rap pride.

-- Alex Pappademas