B.I.G.’s power still echoes today with new ‘Duets’

The Notorious B.I.G.

“Duets: The Final Chapter” (Bad Boy) ••••

It’s like he never left.

Using a mixture of unreleased verses, older popular hooks and new material from some of today’s top rappers and singers, the Notorious B.I.G has been resurrected by his old pal Sean (Diddy) Combs.

The result proves that Biggie’s power in the mid-‘90s was the real deal – and that it still resonates today.

The Brooklyn rapper, born Christopher Wallace, was killed in 1997 in a slaying that remains unsolved. Had he lived, certainly he’d be leading commercial hip-hop, challenging all newcomers to deal with his remarkable, off-the-top-of-his-head talent for creating visual lyrics.

Diddy brings B.I.G’s timeless sound back to the fore with the aid of some of our favorite rappers, including a haunting, long overdue collaboration with 2Pac, Biggie’s friend and sometime rival.

Detroit rapper Obie Trice rounds out “It Has Been Said,” a single that layers Eminem’s recognizable vocals with B.I.G.’s thick-tongued drawl. Later, Jay-Z and Biggie are brought together to re-create a years-ago pairing on the underground circuit, when they called themselves the Commission.

In an era when newbies come and go quicker than you can yell “where Brooklyn at,” Biggie’s old verses give hip-hop a freshness that’s been missing.

Kelley L. Carter, Detroit Free Press

Fort Minor

“The Rising Tied” (Machine Shop Recordings/Warner Bros.) •• 1/2

Mike Shinoda is Linkin Park’s setup man. In a typical song by the mega-selling Los Angeles band – “In the End,” “Faint,” “Somewhere I Belong” – he’s the one who articulates the angst and builds the tension with a rap verse, then tosses it to singer Chester Bennington for the vein-popping catharsis.

Now here’s a whole album of Shinoda’s rap without the rock, an unfettered indulgence of his fascination with hip-hop. For this side project he uses live instruments and original samples to construct a varied series of tracks that make heavy use of those portentous orchestral fragments that are a Linkin Park signature.

Over those tracks, Shinoda offers sober vignettes about people scraping for survival, as well as self-affirming, go-for-your-dreams celebrations of the underdog. The most powerful piece, “Kenji,” is an account of his Japanese-born forebears’ internment.

As a rapper, Shinoda sounds like a suburban b-boy, amiable and sensitive but not charismatic or colorful. “The Rising Tied” gets its vocal heft and energy from his sidekicks and such guests as Common, Black Thought and John Legend.

Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times

Joy Lynn White

“One More Time” (Thortch Recordings) ••• 1/2

“It’s about time” is more like it.

Once a bright young country up-and-comer in mainstream Nashville, Joy Lynn White really blossomed with her genre-defying 1997 independent release, “The Lucky Few.” “One More Time,” her first album since then, reaffirms White’s stature as a versatile and emotionally devastating vocalist in the vein of such acclaimed indie chanteuses as Neko Case and Kelly Hogan.

Co-writing all but two of the set’s uniformly superior songs, White navigates with commanding presence across a stylistic spectrum that ranges from sweeping pop to snarling rock and acoustic mountain music.

Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer

Shirley Horn

“But Beautiful: The Best of Shirley Horn” (Verve) ••• 1/2

Singer Shirley Horn, who died in October, never met a slow tempo she couldn’t squeeze some love out of. One of Miles Davis’ favorite singers, she was a master of singing between silences, creating soulful pockets of mood.

This session recaps her long run on Verve, starting with 1987’s “I Thought About You” and ending with some bonus tracks, including the magisterially bluesy “Jelly, Jelly,” recorded last January.

“You won’t forget me,” Horn croons as Davis accompanies her in a 1990 session included here. That’s about right.

Karl Stark, Philadelphia Inquirer