Rick Ross

Although Rick Ross' second album doesn't have any monster songs like his street anthem "Hustlin'," he shoves the sophomore jinx away with a solid effort featuring magnetic beats from J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, the Runners and J.R. Rotem. With the charisma of a money-gettin' street hustler sitting in a Bentley in a Popeye's parking lot, Ross' persona carries the album. He swagger-splashes the futuristic, spacey "Speedin'" and "Trilla Intro" and fits his husky flow perfectly over the operatic "Maybach Music," which features Jay-Z. It's easy to see why the gangsters who don't die move to Miami.

Rick Ross has one supreme asset: the thundering basso-profundo voice that threatened to
puncture a million sub-woofers when his drug-kingpin anthem "Hustlin'" went massive back
in 2006. On the Miami rapper's second album, little has changed: The voice still booms, the
cocaine and cash still arrive by the boatload, and Ross' beard is still as thick and majestic as
an Afghan tribal elder's. Trilla sets Ross' stentorian flow against sleek, synth-swa... More >