Fredro Starr: Firestarr

M.O.P. may have supplanted Onyx as hip-hop's best-loved shouting enthusiasts, but for a short time in the early '90s, Onyx's mosh-pit-friendly mayhem seemed like the genre's future. Fusing heavy-metal aggression with hip-hop intensity, Onyx cross-pollinated the two subcultures years before Limp Bizkit and its ilk, in the process earning a string of hits, a highly successful debut album (1993's Bacdafucup), and the eternal friendship of Biohazard. It didn't last, however, and by the release of 1998's indifferently received Shut 'Em Down, Onyx's members decided to strike out on their own. Sticky Fingaz scored an appearance on Eminem's gazillion-selling The Marshall Mathers LP, while Fredro Starr snagged a recurring role on Moesha, appeared in Light It Up and Save The Last Dance, and recently released his first solo album. In "Dyin' 4 Rap," Starr insists that he doesn't feel inspired by other rappers, but if Firestarr's eerily Swizz Beatz-like production is any indication, Starr has a giant DMX poster on his wall and the work of Eve, DMX, and The Lox in constant rotation in his CD player. Starr's lyrical content feels similarly derivative: On "What If," he indulges in yet another round of pointless rhetorical questioning, while the charmingly titled "Perfect Bitch" offers a hip-hop version of O-Town's "Liquid Dreams," as Starr daydreams about the component parts of his ideal woman. "Perfect Bitch" even overlaps O-Town's hit, with both parties referencing Jennifer Lopez, Halle Berry, and Janet Jackson. Starr occasionally dresses up his anemic, synthesizer-based concoctions with histrionic R&B crooning (the Aaron Hall-assisted "I Don't Wanna") and familiar hooks (the "True Colors" rewrite "Shining Through"), but a lack of sonic variety still plagues the album. Besides, there's something seriously wrong when a blatant Cyndi Lauper bite proves to be a gangsta-rap album's musical highlight. On "Dyin' 4 Rap" and its grossly unnecessary remix, Starr boasts that he's willing to die for rap, but it would be vastly preferable if he merely channeled his devotion into a decent album.