R&B

Chris Brown, "Graffiti" (Jive)

There it is, reasonably well hidden, three minutes and 38 seconds into "Lucky Me," the 11th of 13 tracks: the moment of contrition. Up through that point, he had tried other strategies for publicly facing his tarnished reputation following his assault on Rihanna, then his girlfriend, in February. There was evasion, masked indignation and pleading. "Lucky Me" initially appears to be the most disingenuous of the songs here, trying to evoke pity for a life lived in the limelight. But then, just as the song is shaking off its light sarcasm, Brown slips into a melody lifted from Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror." This tiny borrowing, from a signature Jackson song about reckoning, resonates louder than almost everything else on "Graffiti," a curiously faceless album that largely thumbs its nose at close reading.

"So Cold" and "Crawl" come off as thoughtful, even if they're not quite mea culpas. In these moments, Brown is pining, mildly apologetic. But mostly he has moved back to the angular seduction tunes he has made his specialty. "I Can Transform Ya" is an electric, brassy collaboration with Lil Wayne. "Take My Time" churns like vintage Jodeci. And "Wait," with Trey Songz and the Game, comes the closest to capturing the frenetic energy of Brown's early singles. (It's tough to tell which singer promises his lover he'll "beat it like a boxer," but it's safe to say that lyric shouldn't be near Brown.)

In a recent interview on "20/20," Brown said a song he'd written for Rihanna a few weeks after the assault, "Changed Man," had brought her to tears when he played it for her. But while that song has been available on the Internet for months, it's not on this album: too literal, perhaps, for a singer still in hiding.

JON CARAMANICA, NEW YORK TIMES

HIP-HOP

50 Cent, "Before I Self-Destruct" (Aftermath)

This stale CD opens terribly with "The Invitation," a familiar apocalypse with popping gunfire. Still, the charismatic rapper with the soulful drawl carries on, and his commitment to thuggish braggadocio is in irrepressible form on "Death to My Enemies" and "Crime Wave." On the flip side, he goes for a giddy spin on the frolicsome "So Disrespectful" and catches fire in the infectious chorus of "Get It Hot."

Yet his perspective is all over the place: There's misogynistic hypocrisy to his boasts of the luxuries he can provide a woman coupled with his distaste for gold diggers. Plus there's the juxtaposition of him condemning and embracing the gangsta lifestyle, and his "Gangsta's Delight," a remake of Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight," is unimaginably bleak.

It doesn't help that the most memorable lyric on "Psycho," a duet with Eminem, is Em's line, "Beat the Octomom to death with a Cabbage Patch Kid."

CHUCK CAMPBELL, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS Service