Lost
With partner MJG, Houston-based rapper Eightball has long enjoyed modest success with a Southern grassroots hip-hop style. The release of his first solo album,Lost--a grand coming-out party featuring big-name guests, sprawled over three CDs--finds him on the verge of becoming a rap megastar. But, as is the case with many multidisc studio releases, more music does not necessarily make a better record. A canny editor could've madeLosta solid single CD, though Eightball--an average rhymer upstaged by guests like Goodie Mob and Busta Rhymes--might've been cut entirely in the process. As is, two discs give Eightball time to cover all the usual (and, frankly, mostly tired) street topics, as well as offer bits of social commentary and spirituality and still leave time for a whole bonus CD featuring tracks by friends and labelmates.--Roni Sarig