Ray J (Atlantic)
Just as Jan Brady always seemed to be whining, "Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!" Ray J must have grown up groaning, "Brandy! Brandy! Brandy!" The 20-year-old younger brother of singer-actress Brandy Norwood has had to live in the shadow of his platinum-selling sister. After the tepid sales of his 1996 debut, Everything You Want, Ray J's biggest claim to fame has been a career hand-me-down: his costarring role on big sis's UPN sitcom Moesha.
The Game plan is to search frantically for a hit, but there isn't an obvious one. Ray J resorts to spicing up the single "Wait a Minute" with raunchy rapper Lil' Kim, and elsewhere he continues his faux-hard-core posing on the hip-hop-flavored "Formal Invite" and the nasty-boy ballad "Wet Me." Only the socially conscious "Out tha Ghetto" offers an escape from the bump and grind.
Bottom Line: Game over
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