Music

Chingy's debut album rides into record stores on the strength of "Right Thurr," an insanely catchy single full of chest-swelling keyboard melodies. It sounds like the inside of a strip club, spewing out snare effects and lewd drum patterns (inspired by the Neptunes) that twirl and clap like dancers spinning on a pole.

Mostly produced by the Trak Starz, Jackpot is remarkably consistent in quality, and each track glitters and glistens with libidinous energy, projecting a superficial glamour that's both enticing and alienating. Chingy's role is to contribute the occasional sure-shot hook and ride its beats with fluffy, innocuous rhymes that allude to pimping and other good-natured sex games. On "Right Thurr" he succeeds magnificently, slurring out, "I like the way you do it right thurr," in a faux-British accent with all the charisma of Dana Dane. Less appealing is "Chingy Jackpot," where an anonymous female vocalist dispenses with political correctness and asks, "Chingy/Why your eyes so chinky?" Otherwise, it's hip-pop business as usual. Like mentor Ludacris (who lends help with Snoop Dogg on the pounding "Holidae Inn"), this St. Louis-based member of the Disturbing Tha Peace crew is unafraid of making candy-coated songs that would probably find a home on the radio, if they weren't so dirty.