Artist: Lumidee

Fame came early for the Puerto Rican, Spanish Harlem rapper and singer Lumidee, who scored a smash hit at 19 with her debut single "Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh)." With its sweet vocals, catchy hook, infectious Diawli dancehall rhythm, and clap-heavy backdrop, "Never Leave You" soared to the top of the charts, reaching the No. 3 slot on Billboard's Hot 100 in 2003, and made it to #1 in Germany and many other European territories, including topping the pan-European charts in the summer of that year.

Lumidee came out back in 2003 with a song called "Never Leave You". Although she really couldn't sing, the song became a hit anyway, possibly due to the fact that all songs featuring that beat were getting enormous airplay (Sean Paul's "Get Busy"; Wayne Wonder's "No Letting Go"). After her follow-up single "Crashin' a Party" went absolutely nowhere, she disappeared. But now she re-emerges with Unexpected.

Lumidee's singing is a tad better, but she still isn't quite there. But much of the time she RAPS on here, and she's not that great at THAT either. Actually, she doesn't sound terrible, but, well, she doesn't sound any different from any other female MC. This is especially shown on the disposable "So Cool...Hollywood".

The only song that really stands out to me is "Stuck On You" (except for in the chorus where she says: "It's true/I can't get past it too"; did we not get As in English class?). Most of the rest of the songs are forgettable, like "Passin' Thru", "He Told Me" and "Caught Up"; and "Cute Boy" is a song I wish I COULD forget. Guest rappers also fail to add life to the songs, like N.O.R.E. ("You Got Me"), Snoop Dogg ("In It For the Money"), and Jim Jones ("I'm Up"). There are also some badly done clubbish makeovers to classic songs, like Roberta Flack's "Feel Like Makin' Love" and Patrick Swayze's "She's Like the Wind" (featuring Shaggy and Tony Sunshine, respectively).

Speaking of that, there is an obligatory end-of-album Spanglish-version-of-the-first-single on here. I can't really call this sophomore album from Lumidee unexpected because that would suggest that I was anticipating it to be good. Yeah, it's better than Almost Famous, but that really ain't saying much.