Baby Bash Super Saucey CD

After years of honing his style with kindred spirits South Park Mexican, Kid Frost, and others, the gifted Houston, Texas rapper Baby Bash finally released a remarkably diverse solo debut, THA SMOKIN' NEPHEW in 2003. Bash clearly immersed himself in music from an early age, and his love of hip-hop pours out of every track on his follow-up, SUPER SAUCY.

Bash easily works an obscure and unlikely sample (for example, a clip from the mostly forgotten 1970s pop hit, the Glass Bottle's "I Ain't Got Time Anymore") into a delicate hip-hop/R&B ballad featuring Akon ("No Way Jose"). On the next track, he turns around and delivers a Dirty South club anthem with E-40 on "Keep It 100." The album hits a fever pitch on shout-out track "Trees," which opens on an invocation, and slips into a reggae call, before serving up an infectious Miami bass/crunk mix with Pitbull and Angel Dust. Bash returns with a potent second salvo on SUPER SAUCY, a record as unpredictable and enjoyable as his first.

Acknowledging crunk and guest spots more than last time out, Baby Bash offers a lighter follow-up to the excellent Tha Smokin' Nephew, one that's more fun but less filling. That's cool, because Super Saucy isn't so much a letdown as a party alternative to Nephew with the swaggering Bash sounding perfectly at home with this radio-friendlier material. Before he was basking in the Houston ghetto sun. Now he's basking in the fame and fortune Nephew brought, and you can't blame the guy for sounding "bubbalated." Slinging the slang is one of the things Bash does best on the album, along with adding some much needed freshness to the tired crooner/rapper combo, otherwise known as the "this one's for the ladies" numbers. Two of them start the album -- "Baby I'm Back" with Akon and the title track with Avant -- but guest shots from Nate Dogg, Paul Wall, and Pitbull bring the album back to the hood, a place where Bash excels and calls on his boy, producer Happy Perez. Perez works his busy, hooked-filled, Texas magic on numerous tracks as he borrows the beats of everyone from Petey Pablo to Pink Floyd to support Bash's winning raps. The album never runs out of ideas, and the energy is high all the way to the final track, a sparkling number that includes Bash but is really just a preview of Houston's next big thing, the Boyz II Men-sounding 3rd Wish. It's the track that really points out the album's thrown-together feel, but with so much well-done good-time music, the crowd-pleasing Super Saucy is worth considering and generally "bubbalicious." [Super Saucy was also made available in a clean version, with all explicit material removed.] ~ David Jeffries

Adapter: J.D. Martin.

Personnel: Baby Bash (rap vocals); Rasheed, Avant (vocals); Chingo Bling, E-40, Grimm, Lucky Luciano, Nate Dogg, Paul Wall , Angel Dust, Pitbull, Suga Free, Money Mike, Bosko (rap vocals); Natalie (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Tatsuya Sato; James Hoover.

Recording information: Digital Services, Houston, TX; Grill Studios, Oakland, CA; Konvict Music Studios, Atlanta, GA; Larabee North, Los Angeles, CA; Sony Studios, New York, NY; The Muzik Factory, Las Vegas, NV.