Wordsworth: Mirror Music

Guest rappers are like one-night stands: All they really have to do is provide a few pleasant moments of distraction, then get out before overstaying their welcome. But on their own albums, rappers are more like spouses: They're stuck with the listener through good beats and bad, hooks and verses, from the first track to the last. Unfortunately, plenty of rappers consistently dazzle during guest turns, but run out of steam when their gifts are stretched to album length. A veteran of the Lyricist Lounge scene and a former guest of Black Star and A Tribe Called Quest, serial track-stealer Wordsworth makes the jump from standout guest rapper to album artist with Mirror Music, his long-awaited solo debut—and the rare rap album that would actually benefit from less substance.

Wordsworth is so good at playing the role of the wisecrack-dispensing smart-ass that it's almost a shame he spends so much of Mirror Music grappling soberly with the challenges of being a socially conscious adult and father. It's hard to fault an artist for trying to say something meaningful, but Wordsworth might have been better off putting out a funny album with a few serious songs instead of a serious album with a few light moments. Wordsworth's irreverent side pops up intermittently on tracks like "Not Fair," on which he trades punchlines and lively battle-raps with longtime tag-team partner Punch, but it's an anomaly on an overwhelmingly earnest album where even the rapper's trademark narratives tend to be more dramatic than comic.

Then again, Wordsworth's humor has always been more cerebral than the norm; he favors clever writing and wry delivery over rap's juvenile obsessions with sex, drugs, and scatology. So perhaps it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that he's put out such a dour disc. Wordsworth certainly shouldn't abandon his quest to dramatize everyday struggles, but hopefully, his next release will feature a better balance between humor and earnestness.