CD reviews

Pittsburgh Slim,

"Tastemaker"

(Def Jam)

So what's a young rapper who repeatedly admits he's not a "tough guy" going to rap about? Sex, of course. Pittsburgh Slim fills "Tastemaker" with the kind of bumping sounds that'll get the gals out on the dance floor and the testosterone-saturated lyrics that'll occur to those watching those gals move.

The Los Angeles-based performer, a transplant from Pittsburgh, has gotten a huge boost with the electro-pop single "Girls Kiss Girls," thanks largely to a video featuring Penthouse model Krista Ayne. In the video, she helps him realize the male fantasy of seeing a little playful girl-on-girl action.

Sex is pretty much all he has on his mind on "Tastemaker," which is refreshingly honest, if a little juvenile. Although the scrappy Pittsburgh Slim could be the would-be oversexed little brother of Eminem, his sound has more in common with indie-electronica-rock performers such as Peaches.

"Tastemaker" is club music, from the pounding opener, "Pittsburgh Slim," to the frenetic-percussion and clapping-beat closer, "Toy." The rapper's sex-charged restlessness is matched line for line by crackling, irrepressible rhythms. He may not have anything deeper to offer than "With so many pretty chicks, who can choose?" ("Superstar Extraordinaire"). But who doesn't have moments when their thoughts are more primal than profound?

Kirk Franklin,

"The Fight of My Life"

(Zomba Gospel)

A decade ago, when gospel star Franklin -- joined by the God's Property choir and Salt (Cheryl James), from Salt-N-Pepa -- had a crossover hit with "Stomp," it seemed that updated gospel music might be reaching an accommodation with mainstream hip-hop and R&B. And why not?

However, gospel remains separate from the pop mainstream, and these days Franklin is definitely a gospel star, not a pop star. But he loves to present himself as a hip-hop-generation maverick who's not afraid to shock the old folks in service of reaching the young ones.

Franklin always lays it on thick, but this album sometimes sounds a bit thin. A hip-hop track called "I Like Me" could almost be a parody, and the R&B is pretty wan. But "I Am God," with the Christian-rock star TobyMac, is a worrisome rap-rock collision that eventually takes flight, and thanks, too, to a hip-pop gospel maximalist who sounds best when he's going way over the top.