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