Album: Behind the Musik
Artist: KJ-52
Label: Bec Recordings
Sounds like: Christian Eminem

At 23 tracks and 77 minutes, “Behind the music” gives quantity, but quality too? Well, the hilariously clever and self-deprecatory “Fivetweezy” is almost worth the purchase price alone. It fits the album’s autobiographical emphasis but avoids big-headedness, documenting problems with pronouncing KJ’s name, along the way name-dropping elements of popular culture including American Idol’s Simon Cowell and Jessica Simpson’s “fish or chicken” infamy. Although they’re not his main ticket, rapcore and old school hip hop numbers work, unlike his “version” of Rebecca St James’s “God,” whose chorus seems crudely grafted on. But such misses are smoothed over by such a wide-ranging and imaginative collection. Funny, humble, sincere, he really can compete credibly with his nemesis Eminem.

Nicks Rating: 4/5