Gucci Mane & Waka Flocka Flame

Ferrari Boyz, the first full-length collaboration between Gucci Mane and protégé Waka Flocka Flame, isn't a work of staggering hip-hop genius. Then again, if you were expecting genius, you aren't familiar with the oeuvres of Gucci and Flocka. Gucci's strength lies in his ability to be a nonsensical weirdo and a hard-ass at the same time, while Flocka has traditionally made up for his lack of lyrical skill by coming across like a ball of energy. In fact, if there's a problem with Ferrari Boyz, it's not that the album is too dumb, it's that it's not dumb enough. Don't get it twisted. It's not that Ferrari Boyz finds the dynamic duo attempting to explore new levels of depth; it's just that the production doesn't let the Boyz play around as much as they should. Tracks like the laidback "So Many Things" and the tight, paranoid "What the Hell" and "Feed Me" don't work well with Gucci's bounce or Flocka's raw aggression. That said, the album isn't a total loss. There's plenty of vintage Gucci and Flocka on the synth-y "Suicide Homicide," the spacey "Stoned" and the super-aggressive "In My Business." If there were a few more tracks like those songs, playing to the MCs' strengths, Ferrari Boyz would have been one hell of an album.