Foxy Brown

Ben Westhoff

Thursday, May 22, 2008 | 7:05 p.m.

The first track on Foxy Brown’s fourth solo album, Brooklyn’s Don Diva, is interspersed with news accounts detailing her troubles with the law, including her attack on a pair of nail-salon workers which led to a probation violation and a stint in Riker’s Island. “I still make the front page news if I just sneeze,” brags Foxy once she gets around to rapping. This is a telling summary of this multi-platinum gangsta rapper’s mentality; she is not only proud of her reputation, but also apparently believes it gives her license to coast.

It’s not that the album doesn’t have infectious beats (“Too Real,” “We Don’t Surrender,” “Bulletproof Love/One Love”) and bravado to spare; it’s just that Foxy is so busy bragging about how badass she is that she never gets around to telling us why she’s so badass. She pays nothing but lip service to her time in the pokey, her battle with hearing loss and the label struggles which delayed this album. “I’m every black girl’s dream,” she rhymes on “Star Cry.” “Controversy sells, I was taught at 16.” But despite all the controversy playing out in her life, this record is rather dull. Foxy’s got plenty to say—she’s just not saying it.