Time was when many critics considered Fat Joe [ tickets ] da Gangsta to be the Jim Belushi of hip-hop, lesser talent to his Bronx "twin" Big Punisher. After 2004's smash single "Lean Back," he managed to push the light of his talents beyond Big Pun's shadow and became an international star.

Thanks to industry consolidation, Fat Joe released "Me, Myself & I," his seventh album, on major-indie Caroline. An apparent result of the artist's new arrangement is maybe the most hungry-sounding major hip-hop album of the year. "Me" is like the unathletic nephew of Ghostface Killah's classic "Supreme Clientele." It gets over on straight-up gangsta.

Listed along with the much-demanded and rarely received "& Absolutely No One Else" as executive producer, Joe shows rare restraint in his use of guest vocalists. (On "The Profit," ever-heated Lil Wayne kills his verse, per average; The Game gives an insinuatingly Method Man-esque chorus on the other collabo, "Breath and Stop".) Other than these bench contributions, it's just the Don Cartegena goin' off on a really good day. He logs major minutes--hoisting veiled verbal bombs at 50 Cent, among others--in a time when industry deals demand unremarkable artists run with the artist we came to check out. Another plus: Crack producers Nu Jersey Devil and DJ Khaled help provide a tightly-unified bed of beats.

Gangsta rap is at a unique place in pop music. Joe's not quite fit to be absorbed like that. If Def Jam/Universal's Jay-Z album "Kingdom Come" is like the most literate episode of "MTV Cribs" ever, this joint is like an unsold reality show pilot: "Breakin' into Cribs."