Rap

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

You can tell there's something new about Pittsburgh rapper S. Money beyond just the latest project. "New Money" introduces the audience to a new, carefree S. Money -- one who is still mired in the paper chase but seems content to slow down every now and again to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

Not that anyone can blame the man for having some fun now that the weight of his entire career has been lifted off his shoulders. The self-proclaimed Doe Boy has bankrolled his own projects and those of his clique, Tha Govament, since 2005. Now, with him and Boaz (Point Blank Productions label) receiving worldwide buzz after Rostrum releases, S. Money can focus on making music, as opposed to making money for the privilege of making music.

Ironically, this freedom didn't translate into a change in musical content since the 2007 release, "Doe Boy 2." Songs like "Billion Dollar Dreams" and "Fast Lane" on "New Money" fall in line with titles like "Get Paid," "Thousands of Dollars" and "Mo Money" on "Doe Boy 2." However, the flexibility did result in a change in tone. Where many "Doe Boy 2" tracks espoused an urgency to stack dollars to get out of the drug game, "New Money" songs let the world know with confidence that the money's already here, that the dangerous, illegal chase for it is no longer the only option to get it.

"Ask around town, man I'm well known to handle mine/I ain't have it good growing up so I had to grind/The streets got hot so I had to rhyme/I had a choice, make hits or do jail time," he raps on the Johnny Juliano-produced track "Fall Back."

But songs like "Breadwinner" and the club banger "Gettin' Dough," which was recently lauded as Heater of the Day by AllHipHop.com, show how much "New Money" changes. An audible grin can be heard when S. Money says, "Every time I come around/I just crack a smile/Cause I'm making paper/Cause I'm making paper" on the hook of "Gettin' Dough." One has to imagine the clean, legitimate, new dough he's getting has something to do with his joy.

"New Money" also expands S. Money's catalog with radio-friendly hits such as the smash "I'm the Man" and the "Parking Lot Pimpin'," which features S. Money on a track with R&B songstress Mona. However, the introduction of mainstream music and a new tone in some songs don't make up for a lack of range in the subject matter of the album.

We know he's going to talk about money -- he's S. Money. But if you're going to name yourself the illest MC since Tupac, as S. Money does in "Da Illest," you need to diversify your topics. Tupac had a song about blaspheming the name of God, a metaphor comparing his gun to a woman and a plea for forgiveness from black women -- all on an album where he modeled the identity of a 15th-century Italian philosopher. Compared to that, S. Money's got a long way to go.

However, with a slew of head-knocking beats and lyrics that encourage prosperity, through illegal means or otherwise, one can easily see "New Money" adding to S. Money's bank account for a long time to come.

-- Deborah M. Todd, Post-Gazette staff writer

S. Money performs at the Fountain Room, 2604 Josephine St., South Side, on Friday at 8 p.m.

Rock/Pop

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

I had a premonition Judas Priest would make an album like this. But not even the 16th-century seer credited by some with predicting events centuries later could have known it would be this good.

The 2-CD set marks the British metal quintet's first concept album, a fascinating telling of the life and times of "Nostradamus," the self-proclaimed prophet, his predictions and turbulent life.

More a continuous narrative than a collection of individual songs, the album flows from one topic into the next; it's often difficult to know where one track ends and another begins. But that's the point with an album like this, which tells a story with music as well as lyrics. (Think Trans-Siberian Orchestra in black leather and studs, riding Harleys.)

Topics include Nostradamus' predictions of war, pestilence and revolution; his clash with church authorities; and his musings on the future of the human race.

Singer Rob Halford is perfectly positioned to channel Nostradamus, with his sometimes demonic voice as scary in the low registers as it is in the air-raid siren higher ones. At times operatic, at times frenetic, Halford puts his legendary vocal cords to the test here, and wins every time.

But it's instrumentally that Priest really blossoms here, adding keyboards, strings and droning medieval choruses to the trademark screaming guitars and bashing bass and drums. The musical style of fellow Birmingham metallurgists Black Sabbath (Priest's summer touring partners this year) are evident as well on tracks like "Death," which owes more than a little to Sabbath's self-titled track "Black Sabbath."

-- Wayne Parry, The Associated Press