In fact, the Biggie-aping extends as far as not only employing Puff Daddy to oversee the mixing, but also infuses a limp reworking of hood classic You're Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You).
Yet when Ross rises above hollow homage, there's an intoxicating impetus to the tar-like bass and woozy funk which drives In Vein, and the Kanye-produced Sanctified buzzes with defiant menace.
• Rick Ross. Mastermind. Def Jam.
• Three stars (out of five)
Single download: Sanctified
For those who like: Notorious B.I.G., Scarface (the movie and the rapper)
- John Hayden
