*** Lil Wayne

LIGHTS OUT

(Cash Money/Universal)

Lil Wayne might be only 18, but the young New Orleans MC already has a platinum disc behind him (1999's The Block Is Hot) and the diamonds to prove it. Wayne's sophomore effort, Lights Out, continues the Cash Money tradition with everything you'd expect from the franchise: jittery, staccato beats courtesy of in-house producer Mannie Fresh; guest spots by the Hot Boys and the Big Tymers; lots of bling-blingin', dope-slingin', street-hustlin', and big pimpin' rhymes. "On the Grind" is Wayne's ode to the craft of drug dealing, and he boasts, "I distribute keys to the kings/O-Zs to the fiends/And ecstasy and weed to the teens . . . anything you like and I have 'em/From crack to viagra/vicodins and valiums." Shit, even pushers have to diversify.

Wayne flips up the subject matter, too, dedicating the softcore funk cut "Everything" to his deceased pops and lamenting the stresses of adult life on "Grown Man." Not as unusual, or as confounding, as Juvenille's mile-a-minute delivery, Wayne's pinched, nasally rasp rips casually through Mannie Fresh's lo-fi Casio-tone creations. But as usual, it's Mannie's restless and rigorous groove-science that steals the show.

Michael Endelman