White rapper from upper Rust Belt conquers world – sound familiar? Pittsburgh's Mac Miller, the Wiz Khalifa labelmate whose debut LP has already topped the album charts, is no Marshall Mathers. But when his themes stick close to Steeltown, he's likable enough. When his rhymes turn celebratory – in the old-school "Party on Fifth Ave." and frat-drunk "Up All Night," say – he can be propulsive, too. He even works in his Jewish heritage and Pennsylvania groundhog Punxsutawney Phil. But more often, his obligatory jet-setter brags about high-dollar shopping sprees and b-words he's f-worded strain for credibility, not fooling anybody.

Listen to "Blue Slide Park":

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• Photos: Random Notes

“V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.”

Quite a few musicians have utilized initials for song titles -- Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.," Abba's "S.O.S.," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," etc. But the more curiously initialed tune has to be "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.," short for "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts." Fishbone's original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, "When Norwood [Fisher] wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, 'Man, I've been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?' Only Norwood would come up with something that out." The same year "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." was released, the film Godzilla 1985 appeared in North America.