Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

Big Boi's first official solo album is a stunning reminder of the OutKast rapper's hall-of-fame skills: He's got an inimitably slick and speedy flow and a personality bigger and more forceful than anything his producers can throw at him, from Scott Storch's clobbering electro funk ("Shutterbugg") to Lil Jon's eerie crunk ("Hustle Blood"). Big Boi is, as ever, steeped in pimp mythology. ("Tailored alligators/Soufflé/Escalade," he raps in "You Ain't No DJ.") But in truth he's less pimp than craftsman, packing more style — and more substance — into his four-minute- long songs than other rappers deliver in an entire album.