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Oddiscee portrays an enigmatic image but claims he's got "pimp flows" to turn "simp hoes to nymphos."

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More About

• The Game (Rapper)
• Master P
• Greg Philippi
• Hip-Hop and Rap
• Dirty South

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Oddiscee
Oddiscee
Fires of August Entertainment

Even though Oddiscee presents himself as some mythical figure, he certainly sounds like he wants Houston audiences to embrace him as a mere mortal. Produced by Mike B. (Master P, E-40), Greg Philippi and Oddiscee himself, this self-titled debut is permeated with that homemade Houston rap sound -- synthesizers, drum machines and various amped-up instruments that serve as a backdrop for riffs on life in The Game.

From the first track, "Oddiscee Is Here," the rapper drops prophetically. Judging from his verses, he does know the aesthetics of a rap tune. "Now I deliver my thesis," he boasts, "On pieces of loose leafage / As my pen explodes on pages / Dripping metaphors and phrases." And on "Pimp Electric," Oddiscee claims to have enough "pimp flows" to turn "simp hoes to nymphos."

The score that accompanies his flow is slick and polished. Oddiscee, a guitar-playing rapper who mostly funnels his ax-work through wa-wa pedals, turns the me-and-my-outlaws number "Urban Desperadoz" into a miniature spaghetti western via flamenco guitars and clopping percussion. And the bossy bass funk of "Turn It Out (No Doubt)" is an anthem for ballers in Houston and beyond.

The rest of the record is just as rhythmically righteous. But even when Oddiscee stoops to showing his playa credentials by rapping about his struggles and status as a G ("G-Life," "Gangsta's Groove") or about finding that special ho to hang with ("Be About Something," "Wrote a Rhyme 4 It"), the craftiness of the music makes everything almost forgivable.

Almost.

Despite Fires of August's efforts to make Oddiscee a shadowy enigma, a demigod of sorts who occasionally descends from on high to experiment with beats and rhymes, the record label's image-makers can't escape the fact that the music isn't all that otherworldly. It's familiar hard-core Houston rap served up with a ghetto-fabulous flair. Oddiscee's still young, though. He'll learn that the best playa in The Game isn't always the guy who says he's the best playa in The Game every five minutes. -- Craig D. Lindsey