**1/2 The Almighty RSO

DOOMSDAY: FOREVER RSO

(Rap-A-Lot/Noo Trybe)

Say what you will about the personal behavior and public image of these four "badd boyz" from the border between Roxbury and Mattapan -- their art is more nuanced than they get credit for. True, this belated debut full-length album opens with the usual stiff gangsta rap swagger, but things eventually loosen up as smooth keyboard figures, muted samples, and occasional rhythm guitar riffs are driven forward by mid-tempo beats and fluid bass lines.

And, whaddayaknow, the raps in this long middle section are almost as winning as the music. Delivered with professional skill (if totally anonymous style), they treat women better than most gangstas would consider seemly, they rhapsodize about the 'hood with earnest affection, and they evince anguished confusion about being "stuck in the mix of action." When the gat-backed boasts and horror stories take over again for the album's final third, the crew's appeal mostly vanishes -- only to come roaring back on the infamous cop-killing stroke "One in the Chamba" (the song that allegedly got them kicked off Tommy Boy in '91). Don't try to rationalize it; if art reflects life, it's in a funhouse mirror.

-- Franklin Soults