Wanted (by Bow Wow, Rap)

Bow Wow continues to share his growing-up adventures with us all in another self-referential album. Bow Wow's party-boy image and self-conscious swagger are intact, along with some appealing musical hooks and a few positive messages for young fans.

What's missing is brilliance -- the instrumental tracks sound dull, and the vocals, however heartfelt, monotone. Bow Wow still seems obsessed with writing lyrics about himself and his popularity with the ladies, though he branches out occasionally on songs like "Big Dreams," a three-verse cautionary tale meant to inspire young fans to keep their eyes on the prize and avoid drugs and gang life. The message is great; for once Bow Wow's obsession with his own history works as kind of a personal warning, as he tells tales of friends and relatives whose lives were destroyed by drugs and gang involvement, in between a hit-you-over-the-head-with-the-message chorus: "When you got big dreams/Don't listen to what nobody say and don't let nobody turn you away/Keep your eyes on the prize and don't fall to the wayside."

The CD ends with a reprise of the song "Eighteen," a song from Bow Wow's last album, made when he was 16. He seems to be trying to say that he's older and wiser now that he really is 18, and maybe as this artist matures he'll continue to find more to write about than his partying expertise.

Released on: July 12, 2005
Label: Sony Music
Genre: Rap