Ghetto Fabulous

On his third album, produced entirely by No Limit’s Beats by the Pound group, New Orleans’ most unhinged spitter takes his sharp-witted, silver-tongued bellowing to the next level over swampy, hard-hitting funk. Mystikal makes a routine mic check sound explosive on the grimy “Keep It Hype”, vividly recounts a nightmare on “I’m On Fire” and tenderly honours his mum on “Life Ain’t Cool”. And he describes his own wild style better than any music critic on “That’s the Ni**A”, crowning himself the “eardrum-snatchin’ champion".