By Alex RushStaff writer Foxy Brown’s rap sheet is nearly as long as her rap book. Released from Rikers Island last month – the prison Brown spent eight months in for violating probation stemming from a 2004 assault charge – the queen of controversy has never lied in her lyrics about being raw. She’s always been badass with a bad attitude – she’s been arrested almost 10 times since the release of her debut album, the raunchy Ill Na Na, more than a decade ago.Brown exudes a menacing self-confidence mixed with scandalous sexuality, two qualities that have propelled her career despite legal issues, record-label drama and sudden hearing loss that lasted several months in 2005 before it was corrected by surgery. Her latest album, Brooklyn’s Don Diva, is also carried by her personality and stories of arrests. Brown declares she “makes the pretty boys nervous” on the dance track “When the Lights Go Out,” and she even uses news broadcasts about her run-ins with the law on the album’s intro.Unfortunately, Brown’s lyrics about guns, funds and sex aren’t clever enough to match her swagger. She has no punch lines, wordplay or metaphors, and her flow is often lazy. Brown seems content with just lounging on the banging beats, many of which are reggae influenced, as if she were lounging on a Jamaican beach. As a result, Brooklyn’s Don Diva is a boring album, especially for such a lively character.Brown’s guest artists also outshine the rap diva. Her husky voice displays no emotion over the blaring horns of “We Don’t Surrender.” Luckily, her Black Hand labelmate Grafh saves the track with his enthusiastic hook and verse. The same thing happens on “Too Real,” a g-funk tune that features AZ, her former group-mate in the defunct The Firm.Although Brown isn’t a great lyricist, she deserves respect for the subjects she discusses on Brooklyn’s Don Diva. Brown relentlessly reps her borough and proclaims she is still thugged out and spends time in her old ‘hood, despite her fame. “I can go from fighting in the projects/ To chilling with my family/ To chilling at the Grammys all in the same day,” she spits on “Never Heard This Before.” Equally compelling is her love for drug dealers on songs such as “Dreams of F—ing a D-Boy” and “Bulletproof Love/ One Love.” “If the pigs come and get him, they’re gonna take me with him,” she raps on the latter track. Brown is a laid-back chick.The best songs on Brooklyn’s Don Diva are the ones in which Brown steps out of her comfort zone; instead of being a tough bitch, she reflects on her past hardships. On “Star Cry,” she spits lines so introspective and vulnerable listeners can’t help but feel like her therapist. “Look inside my soul; I’m just a little insecure; after 13 years I feel I deserve more,” she rhymes on this rap ballad. On the soulful “Why,” she laments her mistakes in relationships. Poor Brown gave a Beemer and mad jewelry to a dude who “dissed her with so many ho groupies” and “had this bitch in [his] Hummer truck.”Brooklyn’s Don Diva can’t compare to the latest work of Brown’s contemporary legends, such as Jay-Z and Nas. Despite some intriguing tracks, it is filled with lyrical lulls that overshadow Brown’s queen-pin persona. arush@umd.edu Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5 stars.
