** Keith Murray

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL THING

(Jive)

Keith Murray delivers no gang-banging tall tales, minimal bitch bashing, and only one high-caliber gat attack -- a brief farce about all those shoot-'em-up "Interludes" on other hardcore rap albums. Nevertheless, it's as close to a pure shot of thug life as most hip-hop headz could possibly need, aside from whatever they think they want. Not only are Murray's biggest pleasures riding with his crew, getting "High As Hell" and working himself up to "Slap Somebody," but the form and context of these pursuits unwittingly frame how "street" they really are.

For starters, his modest flow is constricted by his major ignorance. Years ago Spin magazine praised the Long Island rapper's skill at "deconstruction," but when he thinks that being "homophobic" is something to boast about, or when he describes a judge's closing a case with the pronouncement "This court is now in session," his polysyllabic rhymes clunk like the malapropisms of the "Keith B. Real" clown on the last Will Smith album. And when Murray starts dropping references to his impending three-year sentence for second-degree assault -- which obviously rushed the making of this third solo album -- his material quickly disintegrates (like so many other felons') from bad-ass boasts to frightened, confused pleas for compassion.

I do love the way arch-enemies L.L. Cool J and Canibus guest-star on two fine back-to-back tracks. "Radio" really does have some skunky-funky-illest-funk flow. And producer Eric Sermon provides his usual simple, solid groove throughout. But in the end, it's all shut down with the real-life consequences of one genuinely "Bad Day."

-- Franklin Soults