Tha Block Is Hot

Despite their similarities, the Cash Money Clique's challenge to Master P's No Limit empire is well founded. Even the Clique's most mundane celebrations of sex, wheels, alcohol, and dollars benefit from sharper, more imaginative production--not to mention occasional flashes of humor. Tha Block Is Hot, which serves as much as a posse showcase as a Lil Wayne statement, is entertaining even when it's just serviceable. Gangsta clichés aside, the disc is marked by a sense of fun strong enough that you may not even roll your eyes at its claim that Cash Money plans to stick around for the year 3000. Let's hope for their sake that they don't base their investment plans on such predictions. --Rickey Wright