Veteranz Day

It's hard to get back in the game after you haven't played for a while, especially when you're a legend like Big Daddy Kane, with hip-hop classics under your belt like "The Symphony," "Smooth Operator," and "Warm It Up, Kane"--not to mention the historic high-top fade and way with the ladies. Unfortunately, Kane's latest effort does little to reassert the man who once ruled the world of rap with his spitfire delivery, fire, edge, and panache. Kane seems scattered on this album, caught in between staying true to his old-school roots and attempting to keep up with the Joneses. The R&B-inspired "Change This Game Around" and "La La Land" (which sounds like a bad rip-off of Blackstreet's "No Diggity") just don't work. The best example of what Kane can do is a track called "Terra in Ya Era," on which the mellow, stripped-down production showcases the force of his flow, while the beats keep your head noddin'. But Veteranz Day as a whole has mediocre production, and Kane's vocal delivery is lackluster, a bittersweet reminder of what once was. Don't call it a comeback.