In Brief

** Guru, “Guru’s Jazzmatazz Street Soul,” Virgin. This Gang Starr member works with a number of stars on the third installment of his hip-hop, jazz and R&B; fusion, and nearly all of them outperform him. Erykah Badu, Kelis, Isaac Hayes and Les Nubians shine on the collection. Guru, on the other hand, raps in a sophomoric manner about relationship dynamics and other meaty topics, but his harsh voice and simplistic lyrics don’t come close to the brilliance he displays with Gang Starr.

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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.