"Show Me Your Soul" unites Diddy, Lenny Kravitz and Pharrell Williams, which sounds interesting on paper, but Puffy's monotone rap is pedestrian and Kravitz's vocal contributions are annoying filler, as if he were overdubbed at the last minute to get his name added to the track. "Realest Niggas," a highly anticipated collaboration between 50 Cent and the Notorious B.I.G., scrapes the bottom of Biggie's barrel -- the deceased MC's verses are lifted straight from "Niggaz," which appeared on the posthumous release Born Again. The Neptunes' patented production on Jay-Z's "La, La, La" has lost every ounce of its bounce -- if the Virginia knob twisters don't find a new drum sound soon, they're going to thump themselves right out of business. Snoop Dogg fizzles on "Gangsta Shit," and Fat Joe embarrasses himself on the featherweight "Girl, I'm a Bad Boy." Justin Timberlake outsouls the whole crew with "Love Don't Love Me," a Princely rumination buoyed by an aberrant keyboard sound. But when Justin Timberlake has to save the day, an album's already well beyond repair.
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