Niice 'N Wiild

Chuckii Booker is chasing black lovermen such as Luther Vandross and Michael Jackson, putting major emphasis on the bass drum (well, it would be a bass drum if everything weren't programmed), and singing in an emotive tenor. Dancefloors and boudoirs are given equal emphasis in the tempos. An experienced session man, Booker knows most black styles of the last 25 years and presents them efficiently (in the album's second half, he even throws in some George Clinton-like funk and a copy of James Brown, complete with shouts of "JB's!"), the exception being rap/hip-hop, which he ignores. In those long stretches when his predecessors are between albums, there is plenty of room for him to sneak in with an acceptable substitute like the number one hit "Games." But nothing about his second album suggests he would be any real competition head to head.