Bow Wow

Despite its aggressive title and album art that pays tribute to director John Woo, Face Off is much more of a collaborative effort between Bow Wow and Omarion than a competition. Here, the ex-child star and the ex-boy bander may be growing up enough to require a parental advisory sticker, but just barely. Sure, there are tossed off references to strippers and the dirty deed, but, by and large, the production is thoroughly pop-oriented and the duo still come off like sweet kids.

Rick Rubin, who molds "Hey Baby (Jump Off)"—the most sexually aggressive song on the album—into a spare, scratchy but ultimately unpleasant package, is the only real adult around. T-Pain, who produces "Girlfriend," a charming and giddy (if slightly overlong) paean to the perfect girl, and "He Ain't Gotta Know," a flirty incitement to creepin', doesn't seem to have a speck of real darkness in his heart and is thus a better fit.

There isn't much here that paints a larger picture, and Face Off isn't a flawless collection of singles ("Number Ones," for example, is a colorless Latin number), but Bow Wow and Omarion clearly know how to meld their vocal styles, and there's no shortage of peppy beats and interesting production tics. Perhaps more to their advantage, they wisely keep the album short so there isn't enough time to get bored.

—Hillary Brown
01.03.2008

Omarion, coming off a number one album, and Bow Wow, coming off a Top Ten album -- both of which were released in late December 2006 and varied drastically in quality, with O's 21 wailing all over The Price of Fame, teamed up for a December 2007 release, Face Off. Being a collaborative album between a singer and a rapper, comparisons to R. Kelly and Jay-Z's Best of Both Worlds and Unfinished Business are bound to be drawn. It's better than both of those releases, which isn't saying much at all, but it can be sensed throughout that O and Bow Wow, who have come up together, had a lot of fun goofing off and bouncing ideas off one another -- as opposed to the R. Kelly/Jay-Z affairs, in which those two giants were basically going through the motions. That said, not many of Face Off's tracks are bound to be considered among either artist's best work. In stretches, it's perfectly entertaining, yet most of it goes in one ear and out the other, not leaving much in the memory. Exceptions include "He Ain't Gotta Know," co-written and produced by T-Pain (with none of T-Pain's polarizing tics in place), and a couple of the lighter Omarion showcases, like "Girlfriend" and "Can't Get Tired of Me." The lousiest of the bunch is the "Going Back to Cali" knock-off "Hey Baby (Jump Off)," a low point that might actually have more in common with the Fat Boys' "Wipe Out." It'll probably be the album's biggest hit. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide