A guest spot on the 1996 Jay-Z track "Ain't No
Nigga" introduced Foxy Brown—the scourge of sub-par nail-salon and hotel
employees everywhere—as a jailbait, off-brand Lil' Kim, from the
gratuitous dropping of designer names to the Biggie-meets-Mae West swagger.
Twelve years on, Brown's sexual-outlaw shtick still feels second-hand and
second-rate. On her underwhelming would-be comeback album Brooklyn's Don
Diva,
Brown seems confused about whether her tabloid infamy is a source of pride or
shame. When Brown raps about being "the only black bitch that gets press like
the white bitches Paris and Lindsay" on the self-pitying, tellingly named "Star
Cry," it falls somewhere between a boast and a complaint.
But it isn't all brand-name dropping, rote gangsta
posturing, and defensive bragging about long-ago triumphs: "When The Lights Go
Out" rides a chilly, infectious electro-pop groove to dance-floor heaven, and
the hip-hop mix of "The Quan" smartly borrows the loping, elegant beat of Gang
Starr's "JFK 2 LAX." Brown made her name being the young, new, sexy upstart, so
it's perhaps inevitable that she seems threatened throughout by the crop of
younger, newer, sexier artists out to take her place. A distinct note of desperation
has crept into Brown's music: The more she professes to be important and
relevant, the less important or relevant she seems.