Fat Joe worked hard to put his softer side behind him on his new album "Me, Myself & I" (Terror Squad Entertainment/EMI) -- no hook girls, no future "Lean Back" dance crazes, just street life and the soon-to-be Scott Storch club hit "Make It Rain" with Lil Wayne. Since leaving Atlantic Records, Joe sounds all business. ("I barely smoke blunts now," he raps in "Jealousy." "We into real estate, we -- -- with Donald Trump now.") Then comes "Bendición Mami" -- a moving tribute to his mother and sister, built on a sample of one of Michael Jackson's sappiest songs, "Maria" -- to remind us that thugs need love, too.
("Me, Myself & I," in stores today; grade: B-)
Listen to "Me, Myself & I" here