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*** Jaheim

GHETTO LOVE

(Warner Bros.)

The 21-year-old R&B singer Jaheim doesn’t know exactly why, but the ladies won’t leave him alone. “Could it be my chromed-out whip?” he asks on “Could It Be,” the lead single and standout cut from his debut album. “Or could it be the ice you see?/Could üt be the word on the block?/Tell me why you just can’t stop/What could it be?” It’s a near-perfect slice of pimped-out braggadocio that’s backed by plush orchestral layers and a slow-crawl hip-hop groove, a combination of soft and sinewy that’s so confident and alluring, it could make Bill Gates feel like a mack.

Like R. Kelly, Marvin Gaye, and the other trouble/lover men who came before him, Jaheim serves up a brand of soul that’s mad conflicted. Attempting to negotiate the struggle between sensitive and surly, infidelity and monogamy, dick and brain, the New Jersey native sets out on a quest to find a true mate on one song (“Looking for Love”), then gets protective on the next, threatening pesky ex-boyfriends on “Let It Go.” Fast-forward a few tracks and he’s denying fatherhood (“Lil’ Nigga Ain’t Mine”) and snatühing away girlfriends (“Finders Keepers”). Jaheim does settle down and straighten out by the end, closing the disc with a slew of middlebrow ballads that would be well suited to your next prom/graduation/wedding. But he proves to be a lot more interesting when he wrestles with that no-good, sex-crazed, ego-tripping, cheating motherfucker inside.

— Michael Endelman