**1/2 Eightball

M.J.G., IN OUR LIFETIME

(Suave House/Universal)

Now that Southern hip-hop is taking over the world, maybe Eightball & M.J.G. (representing Tennessee by way of Houston) can finally get their props. That's the kind of sentence that usually introduces a veteran group destined to wallow in obscurity, but these two already have platinum records and a decade's worth of loyal fans -- their success has been huge, if regionally uneven.

The best track on In Our Lifetime is "Throw Your Hands Up," a dense, furious, weird number that borrows rappers (OutKast) and a producer (Mr. DJ) from Atlanta's Organized Noise crew. Most of the album's varied and futuristic beats are ably supplied by Suave House resident T-Mix, but the real focus is the rhyming: in a seductive Southern drawl, the fat-and-skinny duo (guess which one's named "Eightball") tell intricate stories of pimping and fighting and rap supremacy. Beats and lyrics aside, however, hip-hop heads have come to expect one thing from Southern rappers: flamboyantly ugly album art. Eightball & M.J.G.'s past achievements in this field will not soon be forgotten, but the cover of their new disc is surprisingly sparse -- perhaps a computer swallowed the real cover art (a digital collage, no doubt) at the last possible minute?

-- Kelefa Sanneh