702 (1999)

It took a village of writers and producers to cook up trio 702's cannily polished sophomore album. From Missy Elliott's throbbing ''Where My Girls At'' to the vocoder (rediscovered device of the year!) funk of Soulshack & Karlin's ''You Don't Know,'' 702's hip-pop is catchy, though hard to distinguish from the swelling tsunami of R&B girl groups. And what's up with those silly ''7,'' ''0,'' and ''2'' (''2 be or not 2 be'') intervals? C+