VYP (Voice of the Young People) [Deluxe Version]

iTunes Review

An often-hectic collision of Top 40 pop and R&B, Southern rap bluster, and New York attitude, VYP is nothing short of a rollercoaster ride. “Lip Gloss” and “Shawty Get Loose” are the requisite club missiles, but “G-Slide” is even more ferocious — a slab of Atlanta crunk done New York style, complete with a chorus that comes down as heavy as death metal. On the other end of the spectrum, there's the throbbing, stuttering “Stand Up,” and the breezy island New Wave of “Truly In Love,” two songs that echo the Caribbean flavors of Lil’ Mama’s native neighborhood. This Brooklynite can still kick a fierce rhyme, as she does on the uproarious “What It Is:” “And I ain’t tryna brag to you / And I definitely ain’t tryna keep up, cause I’m ahead of you / What, rap and I’ll murder you / Magic with a verse’ll do.” As the album careens from the nasty club music of “Make It Hot” to the soul of “Broken Pieces” to the caffeinated cattiness of the Avril Lavigne duet “Girlfriend,” it becomes hard to discern the real Lil’ Mama through all the costume changes. Then again, it might just be her taste for teenage capriciousness that ultimately confirms Lil’ Mama’s role as the “Voice of the Young People.”