Any story of Beanie Sigel's fourth album begins with his recent personal troubles. Since 2005's The B. Coming, the Philly rapper has served time in prison, been shot and lost his stepfather to murder. The Solution opens with Sigel dissing other rappers, backed by ill-fitting gangster boasts from Chicago R&B great R. Kelly, and slickly cinematic beats by Orlando producers the Runners. Not a good look, my friend. Def Jam boss Jay-Z raps lucid circles around his employee during the DJ Khaled-like synth fanfares of "Gutted." One minute Sigel is threatening broomstick sodomy; the next he's doing for-the-ladies loverboy jam "I'm In." Things improve through the cheezy jazz solos of "Hustlas, Haze and Highways," where Sigel promises to "teach 'em a lesson like KRS-One." Philly producers Dre & Vidal back their townsman with English milquetoast James Blunt on "Dear Self," and Sigel rescues the track's misty melodrama by starting an argument with himself. On another Dre & Vidal track, "Judgment Day," Beans barks, "I'm a Muslim by nature, gangster by circumstance," over a brilliantly executed Black Sabbath sample. The track with Houston icon Scarface, "Rain (Bridge)," peals with churchy organs, and the soulful finale is appropriately titled "Praying." Sigel has had a crazy few years. The Solution is best when he stops swaggering and turns inward to what makes him a smart, gritty and unique MC.

-- Marc Hogan