Poising herself halfway between knowing sexual object and vengeful love goddess,
Da Brat rages through her third album, constructing wonderfully dense raps and delivering them with skill and panache. There is a bit more R&B on
Unrestricted than
Da Brat fans will expect, but given the rapper's uncompromising stance, it never feels like a sellout. Check her hometown salute "Chi-Town" and "Pink Lemonade," and her double team (with R&B singer
Kelly Price) on the spurned-love story "Runnin' Out of Time." Producer
Jermaine Dupri spreads the synthesizer strings a bit too thick but shows his beats are among the best of the major super-producers on the block. ~ John Bush