Since his 2001 debut, Fabolous has been the PG-13 version of those bling-hoppers who composite obscene wealth, casual violence and knee-jerk misogyny into a worldview. With his third album, not much has changed: Fab still uses money as life’s primary metaphor, women as a corollary to success and semiautomatics as a means to protect the former — all while being far more entertaining than threatening.

Real Talk’s high points include Black Ice’s “Exodus” (a spoken-word intro that’s nowhere near as pretentious as you may think), the close-up portrait of everyday urban life on “In My Hood” and “Po Po,” a racial-profiling discourse masquerading as an obligatory Nate Dogg number. In between, though, Fabolous — who has never emerged as a fully developed character — mostly raps about a lifestyle, not life itself.

In what passes for romance in Fab’s world (“Baby”), he spots a girl at a nightclub with an “onion” that nearly brings tears to his eyes. It’s love at first cry: He brings her to his house, considers buying her a fur and promises to “keep it coming like the singles off Thriller.” Shrugging off money shots like these, the kid gives Jay-Z a run for his breeziness.

Fabolous is a master with words and he knows it. Only 25 years old, he rhymes with the steely composure of a poker player who’s been rigging the game for years; his flow leans back as it thrusts forward, tossing off punch lines as though they were only whimsical asides. “You never see one of the nastiest lyricists/Speed through like he in The Fast and the Furious,” he rhymes. It’s this tension that keeps Real Talk from being a collection of one-serving throwaways: Fabolous lands dazzling lyrical stunts while sounding like he’s coasting along on cruise control.

DOWNLOAD: “My Hood,” “Exodus”