Bobby Digital In Stereo

Rapper-producer RZA has long enjoyed a reputation for being one of the most creative acts in hip-hop, and his new solo album lives up to his billing. A theme album, Bobby Digital looks at the exploits of a partially mechanized creature. As you might guess, given the B-movie setup, not all of the album makes sense, but RZA does create an atmosphere of sci-fi menace and scatological humor. The music is propelled by elastic rhythms and scattershot rapping. Several tracks are vulgar and misogynistic, but RZA tries to show his softer side with a hiccuping hip-hop cover of the soul song Love Jones. This is a fine album. Romance never seemed so raw.

--By Christopher John Farley