Trina Glamorest Life CD

Trina's righteous raunchiness is more than a little exhausted on Glamorest Life, the Miami MC's third album. She seems to know it too, sounding distanced and not nearly as energized as she was on 2002's Diamond Princess. That puts more weight on the productions and guest verses. Despite contributions from names like Mannie Fresh, Jazze Pha, Needlz, and rising duo Cool & Dre, the productions are routinely just as lacking. Take Mannie's "Da Club," in which he more or less jacks the misty-eyed backing for Faith Evans' "Hope." Mannie also pitches in with a wistful reminiscence about a stripper, while Trina helps relate the tale and remains, as always, the one calling the shots: "He wanna cram it and jam it/Put the pickle in the middle, motherf*cker, not fanny." Ironically, one of the better tracks -- roughly the umpteenth track to interpolate Force M.D.'s' "Tender Love" -- takes on a sullen tone, even though Trina's more defiant here than at any other point in the album: "I shed so many tears, can't believe how many years the baddest bitch put up with your dusty ass." Lil Wayne, Lil Scrappy, Snoop Dogg, and Trey Songz provide vocal support, but very little of it raises the material's quality level. ~ Andy Kellman
Self-crowned "baddest bitch" of hip-hop, Trina uses her overt sexuality-as-power style crafted by two of her role models Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown, to make her third record, THE GLAMOREST LIFE, a solid, tough-as-nails hardcore rap experience. A mix of slow jams, the Kelly Rowland (Destiny's Child) -assisted "Here We Go," and club anthems like "Shake," an ode to the destructive Crunk sounds of Lil' Jon, confirms the fact that Trina is a leading lady of the hardcore rap scene of the early 21st century.