In Brief

* * * E-40, “In a Major Way,” Jive. In this major-label debut, East Bay rapper E-40’s distinctive street style emerges fully blown, boomingly bottom-heavy, overlaid with floating G-funk melodies and ‘70s soul references less reproduced than alluded to. The songs are deliberately underproduced but tightly structured, and the violent player-gangsta fantasies are limned in skillful, horrifying detail.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).