Trae tha Truth

Trae tha Truth

Street King's no lie. Since his April 2010 ban from Houston's 97.9FM The Box, Trae tha Truth has proved that word in the streets spreads faster than anything on your FM dial. The Guerilla Maab founder's sixth solo LP comes out "Strapped Up," with a slicing flow that Trae delivers in his signature cryptic whisper. Declarations of street dominance and "Getting Paid" carry Street King through its first quarter with contributions from Rick Ross, Lloyd, Game, Jadakiss, Wiz Khalifa, and longtime affiliate Jay'ton. Its next grouping plays out as drastically more morose. Trae queues up the weary hardships that embody 2007's Life Goes On midway through, testifying with less bravado on "Goes Out," the Wyclef-propped "Slum Religion," and epic "Not My Time," a cut featuring Lynzie Kent that, if it were the album's last track, would make the 50-minute disc a compelling path from braggadocio to despair. Instead, Street King clocks in at a monstrous 80 minutes, enough to turn the title cut sour and make Big Boi and Lupe Fiasco's cameos on "I'm On" an equal afterthought to Fiasco's recent fall-out, Lasers.