**1/2 Various Artists

RHYME AND REASON

(Buzztone/Priority)

After you've waded through the cliché'd mediocrity of Crucial Conflict's "Bogus Mayn" and E40's "Every Year," it's refreshing to grab the remote and skip quickly to the optimistic brilliance of the legendary Vibesman's "Everybody Loves the Sunshine." Too many of the MCs here go through the motions, spitting tired clichés over plodding post-Dr. Dre/G-Funk. Even the Tribe Called Quest/Busta Rhymes collaboration, "Wild Hot," sounds uninspired.

Relief is offered by two venerable NYC stalwarts. KRS-ONE's "Bring It Back" resurrects his appropriating rhyme style, as he cleverly strings together other rappers' words in a lyrical collage. Wu-Tang grandmaster RZA unfurls "Tragedy," an apocalyptic, new-world-order warning shot over his signature tripped-out bottom-heavy sound. But the contributions of these two veterans is too little, too late. With no organic hip-hop in evidence, Rhyme and Reason sounds contrived.

-- Adam Matthews