Mystikal - Ghetto Fabulous CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

for the greater glory of Master P and the Jewelers of America: Mystikal and Mia X. As fascinating a rap stylist as Snoop himself, Mystikal sets sputtering speed gutturals at permanent bellow, while Mia X's soft drawl is nothing special. But their 1997 albums, Unpredictable and Unlady Like, shared a vulnerability that came alive in mourning songs for a sister and for a homegirl. On their follow-ups, however, both artists fall into step with their fellow soldiers.

Mia X is a bit player on Mama Drama's lead and third tracks, devoted to de rigueur chest beating by the No Limit army. And when she wants to prove she's one of the boys, she trades in the silly but audaciously gender-bent mackstress routines of Unlady Like for cliched-to-death claims of gunslinging battle prowess. The standout, "Puttin' It Down," is a nonstop group exercise that could be on any No Limit album, and though Mia X still occasionally asserts her female pride, her child and her dead homegirl disappear into endless songs about thug services rendered. Even at her most humane, she's praising a man -- "Daddy."

Mystikal fares no better. After years of professional struggle reflected in the desperation of his debut, he's a big cheese, which translates into one more posturing tough among toughs. The raw rapping and mad rhymes of tracks like "I'm on Fire" and "Whacha Want, Whacha Need" are far from generic. But his musical command will pass right by the unenlightened millions who have never thought of buying a No Limit record and never will. (RS 804)

ROBERT CHRISTGAU