In Brief

* 1/2 Hammer, “The Funky Headhunter,” Giant. Hammer the gangsta rapper. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? About as silly as most of this album. Hammer has opportunistically shifted genres now that pop rap, which he rode to superstardom, is on the skids. The problem is that Hammer has zero feel for gangsta rap. The album is not a total disaster, thanks to some smashing beats and the unbelievably funky “Don’t Stop”--but it’s close.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).