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Hot & Wet
11/12/2003 10:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dan Leroy
Two years out of the spotlight (thanks to a contract dispute between their mentor P. Diddy and new label Def Jam) could have been a fatal layoff for 112, as there's been no shortage of R&B quartets who've appeared in the interim to fill the void. But the Atlanta foursome pick up right where they left off on their last album, Part III, smartly avoiding the blandness that lurks at the edges of their smooth harmonies. The buzzing Euro-bassline that made 112's big hit "Peaches And Cream" crackle returns on "Unbelievable" and "Give It To Me," while the hip-hop title track writhes to a tightly-coiled rhythm guitar riff. The high quality of those potential club wreckers also underscores an irritated jab regarding Puff in the "Behind the Music"-style expose "Everday": "They sayin' that he gave us the hits/knowin' damn well that we write our own s---." That self-determination isn't a universal blessing, as a few too many pillowy slow jams pad the running order. But a handful have some real emotion embedded beneath the studio lacquer; the passionate piano ballad "Slip Away" could as easily be about a musical career, not an affair, that disappeared. Hot & Wet proves conclusively that it hasn't.
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