Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter Review

There are two reasons to keep this album. Big Pimpin takes an Egyptian film score sample and a skittering beat and produces four minutes that remain the most physically exciting thing in his catalogue, whatever you make of the lyrics, which are indefensible and which he has since said he regrets. Do It Again is a great single. Then there is the rest, and the rest is the sound of a man who no longer needs to try.

So Ghetto and Come and Get Me are fine. Things That U Do and Snoopy Track are not. The production is expensive and scattered, chasing several trends at once, and the writing has drifted into pure status inventory: cars, watches, women, the same three subjects in rotation with the specificity that made the early records land now sanded away. It went platinum several times over on momentum alone. Almost nobody plays it front to back, including people who love him.