Autobiography of Mistachuck (1996)

With equal measures of ambition and bombast, Public Enemy's garrulous frontman Chuck D uses his first solo album Autobiography of Mistachuck to excoriate the government's urban policies, to critique pop culture — to, unfortunately, restate everything he's said on earlier PE albums. Some sinewy rhymes, to be sure, but the mixture of R&B, old-school breaks, and gangsta grooves is frequently too intellectually contrived to strike at the gut-level emotions Chuck D claims as his goal. C+