Phife Dawg: Ventilation: Da LP

For a group that titled its last album The Love Movement and won over the neo-hippie Trustafarian demographic like no hip-hop act since The Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest's post-break-up careers have been surprisingly bitter and rancorous. Ali Shaheed Muhammad rebounded nicely with the pleasantly retro R&B supergroup Lucy Pearl, but Tribe frontman Q-Tip went the blatantly commercial route, reinventing himself as a dance-friendly playboy, complete with Puff Daddy-style run-ins with the law. Phife Dawg, meanwhile, lashed out against his previous bandmates in interviews, accusing them of hogging the spotlight and underestimating him. Released on an independent label with all the fanfare and promotion of a Young MC comeback album, Ventilation finds Phife playing the role of the hungry underdog, a credibility-seeking loner tired of playing the comic sidekick to Q-Tip's introspective leading man. Never the world's greatest lyricist, Phife flounders a bit on his solo debut, as he tries unsuccessfully to carve out a niche as a battle-rapping B-boy with skills to spare. It gets off to a sluggish start, but Ventilation improves as it goes along, as the bile of early tracks such as "Flawless" gives way to more personal, introspective material along the lines of the autobiographical "Beats, Rhymes And Phife," which showcases the diminutive New Yorker's loopy sense of humor and winning personality. Aided by the production finesse of ace beatsmiths Jay Dee, Hi-Tek, and Pete Rock, Ventilation hits its high point with the amusingly lascivious "Ben Dova" and the Pete Rock-produced "Melody Adonis," a disarmingly sweet tribute to a longtime love. Minor but far more charming, intimate, and memorable than Q-Tip's soulless solo album, Ventilation is as endearing as it is inconsequential.