Daily Staff Writer

“My Melody”

Queen Pen

With male bravado to make Puff Daddy jealous, feminine wiles to make Lil’ Kim blush, and a lesbian love duet to boot, here comes hip-hop’s newest femme fatale — Queen Pen.

Originally making her debut on the Blackstreet album “Another Level” with the smash hit single “No Diggity,” producer extrordinaire Teddy Riley decided to take her career to the next level with a full LP.

“You know the program/let no man interrupt your flow/and if that’s your man you better let him know,” quips Pen as she sets her stance on “Queen of the Click.”

The debut single “Man Behind the Music” has some Puff Daddy tendencies from Riley brothers Teddy and Markell, but the laid back funk mixed with car horn samples make a bizarre and appealing jam anyway.

Funk is what coheres the album together — where Pen makes rookie mistakes as a new MC, Riley’s strong beats salvage the rhymes.

Songs like “All My Love,” “Party Ain’t a Party” and the surprising “Get Away” with vocals by ’80s star Phil Collins scream New Jack Swing.

Queen Pen also surprises in the song “Girlfriend,” a duet with Me’Shell Ndegeocello. Completely redefining the meaning of “playa hating” she accuses men of being upset when she steals their girlfriends.

“It’s my business what I do/him or her/he or she/it’s I, Q,” raps Pen.

This carefully cultivated ambiguity could either be seen as a marketing ploy or liberated artistic expression, but Pen isn’t saying which.

Either way, her album keeps you guessing and listening.

3 1/2 stars out of five.

— Steve “Flash” Juon

“Have Heart Have Money”

The Mossie

The first time “Have Heart Have Money” musically entered the hip-hop lexicon, rap star E-40 was stackin’ chips on “Exercise Yo’ Game,” one of the highlights of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” LP.

Having signed a “Yea Area” crew of up-and-comers to his Jive distributed Sick-Wid’-It records, E-40 has dropped The Mossie’s “Have Heart Have Money” debut LP.

Let there be no doubt about the focus on E-40: from the guest lineup (members of his rap supergroup The Click and other infamous Vallejo MC’s) to The Mossie’s playalistic ways, the LP has 40 written all over.

That, unfortunately, is the album’s strongest detraction: as an album by E-40 this would indeed “have heart have money,” but The Mossie doesn’t have 40’s veteran experience or his uniquely distinctive rhyme style.

To their credit, The Mossie’s album is mostly a fun and lighthearted romp through a variety of funk grooves. The only serious mistakes are the two lame interludes which slow down an otherwise smooth cruise.

E-40/Click producer Studio Ton provides ample doses of that trademark heavy Vallejo funk, but The Mossie just do not have the chops to deliver classics.

The album is enjoyable, but not a must-buy LP.

2 1/2 stars out of five.

— Steve “Flash” Juon