TI: Paper Trail

While rap's other blue-chip brands watch their stock prices plummet, Clifford Harris continues to beat the market. Paper Trail is his third album in succession to outsell its rivals. The cynic might see this as the result of careful market analysis. It certainly helps that he combines 2Pac's persecution complexes, 50 Cent's true-crime past, Kanye West's ambivalence about fame and the southern slur of Lil' Wayne (the latter pair join Jay-Z for the good-on-paper, less-so-in-the-booth Swagga Like Us). His apparent claims to have had "no choice" in his most recent legal entanglement - attempting to procure machine guns from an FBI cooperating witness - do him little credit, but the skilled, catchy choruses of On Top of the World, Whatever You Like and current UK hit Live Your Life suggest he is still a strong "buy".