After gaining a sizable audience with his debut album,
Gutta,
Ace Hood returned just seven months later with a more polished follow-up, the mistitled
Ruthless. For those desiring the more radio-friendly side of the gruff rapper, the album offers plenty of bedroom numbers and club tracks along with a big list of superstar guests, including
Akon,
Lloyd,
Rick Ross, and
T-Pain. For everyone else, this is too much too soon and awfully inconsistent, with some swagger numbers succeeding splendidly (the highly infectious "Loco with the Cake" or maybe "Born an OG," with
Ludacris in full party mode) while others just fail (the bland "Champion"). To his credit,
Hood dominates "Overtime" even with
Akon and
T-Pain as guests, and on the closing "Make a Toast" he brings the guts, sounding like the unforgiving victor he was on
Gutta. If the sound quality were rougher and the attitude looser, this would come off as one of those mixtapes where collabos and lesser tracks pacify the faithful in between official albums. The casual listener should just check the hits. ~ David Jeffries