Chicago MC Common's new album was inspired by a bummer of a night in a Prague nightclub. "My own DJ was there — and even he wasn't spinning my songs," says the rapper, who's better known for lyrical insight than dance-floor jams. "I said, 'I got to make some club music.' " And he did: Neptunes-produced "Universal Mind Control" is a bass-heavy rump-shaker with echo-y vocals and good-time rhymes ("Like cash money, I stay in the pocket") while "Make My Day," with a sunny Cee-Lo hook, reinvents "California Girls" for the hip-hop generation.

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview