New York City is in peril. Though senseless terrorist acts failed to crush Lower Manhattan's spirit, clueless rappers are threatening to ruin hip hop in the Bronx, Harlem and everywhere else. These new kids are screaming bling this and bang-bang that, all the while distancing themselves more and more from the way Flash, L.L. and Rakim used to handle their bizness. Go ahead and add Fabolous' name to this growing list. But while Fab flosses more than your family dentist, he separates himself from other MCs by having an absolutely dynamic presence on the mic.

He reminds you of Jigga with his charisma and shows hints of Jada in his cockiness. The Brooklynite comes off like Mase and Capone on the sound scale. And though the teenager who takes more blows to the head than Ali has only been in the game for a minute, his rhyming skills actually may be their superior.

Ghetto Fabolous, Fab's eagerly-anticipated debut, isn't the greatest springboard for the DJ Clue-managed rapper, but it'll do. One Day, a diary-like cut anchored by a continuous flow of piano keys, and the smoothed-out The Bad Guy don't regress into the irritating cesspool of beats that most of the other songs do. But thankfully, Fabolous flows like the Nile River, keeping sessions light with quick metaphors and inside jokes. On Get Smart, he goes: I'm a teacher's pet/ And even if you're good at math, Ma/ You'll have problems counting each baguette. Lines like that are all over Ghetto Fabolous, and if you can get over the fact that his tracks have no heart, it's well worth a cop.