In Brief

On his second Soul Assassins album (due in stores Tuesday), Cypress Hill’s DJ Muggs gathers an impressive roster of talent to rhyme over his penetrating production. He tailors his beats to match such respected lyricists as Kool G. Rap and GZA/Genius, and the results are almost always spectacular. Although the album has no real agenda other than to showcase Muggs’ production and the rappers’ impressive braggadocio skills, it’s a powerful collection of hard-core hip-hop.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.