With collaborations all the rage within the American music scene these days, you'd be forgiven for thinking that no-one makes records on their own any more. Even so, the coming together of Brooklyn's Jay-Z (the smuggest star in hip-hop) and Chicago's R Kelly (the smoochiest star in RandB) is a prospect which deserves anyone's attention. And, amazingly enough, the project seems to have brought out the best in both of them. Jay's spat-out raps about bad boys in the ghetto are as compellingly tough as ever, while Kelly shows a much harder side than usual in his crooning tales of single mothers and abandoned families - even if you hate his slushy love songs, you may well like this. Belying its initial appearance as a hastily-assembled ego-trip, The Best Of Both Worlds stands up very well as a strong, gutsy album in its own right.

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