Like Jay-Z, to whom this Houston MC compares himself favorably several times, Lil’ Flip is an entrepreneurial prodigy…he made his name selling thousands of mixtapes (earning the respect of H-Town legend DJ Screw) and finally broke big in 2004. He foreshadowed Houston rap’s current explosion by combining the slow-mo stylings of Screw with poppy accoutrements like Pac-Man sounds and silky R&B hooks. His fourth major-label album offsets muscular, sludgy synth beats with casual, breezy gangsta boasts. The beats are often dazzling (or just plain weird, as on “I Need 2 Find My Way,” which suggests chopped-and-screwed Staind), the rhymes less so. His disses in particular need a little work. “I went to France and found out you ain’t large as us,” he tells a rival on the club-banger “What It Do,” and you know how much that hurts.

DOWNLOAD: “I Need 2 Find My Way,” “Starched & Cleaned”