"The Big Bang" by Busta Rhymes; Aftermath

After three years of percolating the music in Dr. Dre's lab, Busta Rhymes unleashes his best album since 1998's "Extinction Level Event: The Final World Front."

He's as charismatic and inventive as ever on this star-studded effort (Missy Elliott, Q-Tip, Nas, Raekwon), featuring beats from A-list producers (Swizz Beatz, Sha Money XL, Timbaland, will.I.am, Erick Sermon). The hypnotic "Get You Some" and pulsating hit "Touch It" get the party started before Rhymes takes a deeper turn on "Been Through the Storm" with Stevie Wonder, and "In the Ghetto" with the late Rick James.

He vents at fair-weather friends on "They're Out to Get Me" and teams with Q-Tip to lament rap's stagnation on "You Can't Hold a Torch." The eerie "Legend of the Fall Offs" has him playing Grim Reaper to faded MCs. Rhymes himself won't be getting such a visit any time soon.

— Steve Jones

"Laugh Now, Cry Later" by Ice Cube; Lench Mob Records

It has been six years since Ice Cube's last album, so hip-hop fans who know him only from movies such as "Barbershop" and "Are We There Yet?" may not realize that he was once "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted." And though he's no longer the angry young man from N.W.A. and his early solo days, he reminds you he is still nobody to fool with.

The Scott Storch-produced first single, "Why We Thugs," takes aim at the powers that be for flooding poor neighborhoods with drugs and guns. On "Child Support," he's like a disappointed father excoriating today's gangsta rappers. Other rugged songs such as the title track, "Chrome & Paint" and "Go to Church" serve notice that he hasn't gone Hollywood.

Not every song here is a winner, but there are more than enough to signal that Ice Cube hasn't forgotten how to spit fire.

— Steve Jones