R. Kelly, Kat DeLuna, Young Jeezy, Pambo and Funky C.

the music press

tue 5/29/2007

A collage of R. Kelly, Kat DeLuna, Young Jeezy, Pambo and Funky C.

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“The R in R&B is back” on R. Kelly’s ninth album, Double Up, according to BBC 1Xtra. Entertainment Weekly gives the album a "C" for its silly, sexalicious lyrics and concludes that “the guy who brought you the nutso R&B opera Trapped in the Closet has completely lost whatever was left of his dirty mind.”
Nineteen-year-old Dominicana Kat DeLuna's debut single, Whine Up, "offers ultimate seasonal sizzle – over the airwaves, on the beach, down the highway and across dancefloors,” raves Billboard.com. “To say she’s a crossover artist is an understatement,” gushes Starpulse.
Young Jeezy is cooling things down with his latest mixtape, Young Jeezy Presents U.S.D.A.: Cold Summer. The Los Angeles Times complains: “U.S.D.A.’s simplistic rhymes about blind ambition amount to nothing but a quasi-Republican, pull-yourself-up- by-your-bootstraps ideology on crack.” Despite its shortcomings, Hip Hop DX isn't writing it off: “[T]he album isn’t completely worthless. There’s enough on here that you can bump in the whip, or that’d be fine to hear at the club.”
Poprocks, the debut album by 21-year-old Mexican singer-songwriter Pambo, is full of “poppy, radio-friendly tracks with rock edges, reminiscent of Avril Lavigne and decidedly youth-friendly,” notes Billboard.biz. Mexico City newspaper El Economista calls the Aureo Baqueiro-produced release “fresh and passionate," even though it emerged from the "wasteland that is Mexican pop music."
Funky C, ex-singer of Chilean cult faves Los Tetas, debuts his solo album Joya. Newsday.com credits the multi-talented Funky C for stopping short of “overwhelming this largely fun-filled album with pretension.”