**1/2 Trick Daddy

BOOK OF THUGS: CHAPTER A.K., VERSE 47

(Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic)

One day last fall, I was watching a college-football halftime show on BET. The marching bands were as ragged as the teams, and I was about to give up when I heard a familiar sound. I cranked up the volume; sure enough, the band were ripping through "Back that Azz Up" and the rest of the Cash Money Records catalogue. Last week, the other shoe dropped. I was listening to Book of Thugs: Chapter A.K., Verse 47, the third disc by Trick Daddy (the guy responsible for the sublime 1998 single "Nann Nigga"), and halfway through, I heard him say, "We gon' let the band deal with this." Before the words were out of his mouth, the Miami-based MC was interrupted by a boisterous drum-and-brass ensemble -- it was halftime again.

What makes Southern hip-hop so exciting is the way it expands the universe of rap music: from marching bands ("Shut Up") to electronic experiments ("Gotta Let 'Em Have It"), Trick Daddy unites a wide range of sounds beneath his expressive, down-home drawl. Of course, it wouldn't mean much if the songs didn't work. But that's no problem on Book of Thugs -- not even when it comes to the lethargic "Amerika" (a socially conscious collection of clichés), which is saved by those artificially high-pitched voices that chant the chorus.

-- Kelefa Sanneh