Word: albums
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...called herself Mary Poppins, her career might have been different. But by adopting the name of the street-tough title character of a blaxploitation classic, rapper FOXY BROWN gave herself a lot to live up to. She proved worthy on her first album, Ill Na Na, with lewd lyrics, a hypersexual persona and platinum sales. Brown, 19, now has a second album, Chyna Doll, an equally provocative effort. She bristles when asked if she's going too far with her spiked heels and X-rated raps. "What's going too far? Marilyn Manson urinates on a crowd...
...Boys, a quintet of clean--but not too clean--cut guys with great dimples and abs, was nominated for a Grammy as Best New Artist this year and has so far grossed more than $900 million in record, video and merchandise sales. Last year the group's eponymous debut album was the nation's third best-selling record, followed closely by its chief rival 'N Sync, another quintet of clean--but not too clean--cut guys with great dimples and abs whose eponymous debut was the year's fifth best seller. Both records, with their similar mixes of pop dance...
...same songwriters and producers, and both acts owe their most immediate debt to the somewhat more sophisticated R.-and-B. harmonizing of Boyz II Men. The hits are catchy, even compelling, but it's hard, once a girl has grown breasts, to make it through a whole album's worth; then again, to be fair, the same was true of the Jackson Five, the greatest bubble-gum group in history...
...Offspring is a best-selling punk band, but it isn't a great one: the group lacks the caustic poetry of Nirvana, the righteous snarl of Rancid and the amiable snottiness of Green Day. In its new album the Offspring attempts to make a virtue of its creative limitations: the songs on Americana are basic and direct, and a few of the tracks, including The Kids Aren't Alright, have a brutal appeal. But the band's weakness for cheap laughs soon grows tiresome--there's even a punk-rock parody of the easily mocked standard Feelings. For a group...
...also pictured in the magazine's 'startracks' section with Will Smith, the rap artistand executive producer of her album...