Jaheim: Ghetto Classics : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

With a croon that practically invites panties to rain down onstage plus a taste for street-wise beats that any half-sensitive thug can appreciate, New Jersey native Jaheim Hoagland is pushing hip-hop soul toward perfection. "The Chosen One" kicks off album number three with a triumphant horn line and a stomp-stomp-clap groove; Jaheim is at his Teddy Pendergrass best as he pledges devotion to "my finest ghetto girl." Stellar single "Everytime I Think About Her" features guest rhymer Jadakiss seconding the singer's efforts to rein in a club-going girlfriend, and sizzling electro touches shore up the extended simile of "Like a DJ" ("You fade me out/As you blend him in"). If not for three cookie-cutter slow jams (e.g., "Conversation," which contains the unfortunate line "I recognize bowlegs and Chinky eyes"), Ghetto Classics would be nothing less than the front-to-back truth.