Fall Music Preview

Fall Music Preview

Rap & R&B

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INDIA.ARIE Voyage To India - It'd be an understatement to say India.Arie felt more relaxed recording her sophomore album. ''It took three months. The first album took two years.... I was like, it's done? Let's record five more songs!'' She describes it as ''very collaborative'' and ''not as isolated'' as Acoustic Soul, with many songs emerging out of band grooves. Take the single ''Little Things,'' which is missing one really big trademark: ''There's no guitar on it at all, and I write everything on guitar.'' (9/24)

LL COOL J 10 - When any artist stays in the biz long enough to release 10 CDs, it's noteworthy, but when someone in youth-dominated hip-hop makes it that long, it's historic. ''I wanted to celebrate the history,'' says LL, who's not only survived, but thrived with multi-platinum albums and a burgeoning film career (he just wrapped Mindhunters with Val Kilmer and Christian Slater, due in 2003). ''It's a nice moment, to get to the 10th album.'' For the occasion, the venerable MC pared down and went light on collaborations. ''I wanted to keep it streamlined and clean,'' he says. ''I didn't want to have any crutches: This is an LL Cool J album.'' (10/15)

WHITNEY HOUSTON Just Whitney... - Other than its media-bashing single ''Whatchulookinat'' (which the media, in turn, bashed), not much is known about the fifth full-length studio album of Houston's 17-year career. Her label did say, however, that the CD boasts producers She'kspere (Mariah Carey), Rob Fusari (Destiny's Child), and Kenneth ''Babyface'' Edmonds. Houston's last all-new release, 1998's My Love Is Your Love, mixed R&B bangers with her usual supersize ballads -- this CD will likely do the same. (11/5)

JAY-Z The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse - Expect Jigga's new one to be hard. Very. ''There's a lot of rock guitars and no soft melodies,'' reports Jay-Z's longtime engineer Guru, who says that the rapper has been working feverishly. ''He's recorded about 25 songs, and is still working every day.'' For those seeking a deeper understanding of Jay-Z, this will be the album to study. ''If you listen to the media, you'd think Jay is all about diamonds and cars and women and champagne, when in reality that's the furthest from the truth,'' says Guru. ''Not that he doesn't indulge in champagne and women and have a lot of diamonds, but what he's saying here is 'That's not me.''' Thanks for clearing that up. (11/5)

FABOLOUS Street Dreams - If Marilyn Manson's morbid take on the Eurythmics' ''Sweet Dreams'' wasn't your cup of Goth, try Fab's ''Street Dreams,'' featuring a sample of the original. Throughout his second album, the Brooklyn-bred rapper, who hit it big last year with ''Can't Deny It,'' comes to terms with realizing his dreams. ''[Ghetto Fabolous] was like my introduction to the world,'' he says. ''The second is more like how I'm living with the success.'' More success might be on the way: Fabolous is reading scripts for The Fast and the Furious 2 and Fat Albert. (11/12)

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