Album Review: Willennium by Will Smith

Forget your Y2K worries. Don't think about the water you've been hoarding or the guns and cash Mom has hidden under your mattress. Millennium what? You must mean Willennium, the latest effort of pop Renaissance man Will Smith. This energetic and artistically diverse album will make the destruction of your new laptop a dim memory as you dance to "Will 2K" at your New Year's party of choice.

On Willennium, Will Smith collaborates with artists such as Eve, Tatyana Ali '02, Breeze, Lil' Kim and Kel Spencer. The sound varies from the clever satire of pop culture in "Freakin' It" to the powerful "Afro Angel," which uses the simplicity of its lyrics as a highly evocative tool. Willennium thumbs its nose at apocalyptic prophecy, evidenced by the irony of the album's first song, "I'm Comin'," where Smith tells his audience to relax about the millennium because "It's not the second coming of Christ, it's the first coming of me." Smith's collaboration with MC Lyte and Ali, "Who Am I?," has a chorus that even the most jaded listener will sing along to. And for New Year's Eve, a copy of Willennium will be just as vital as the canned Spam and flashlights when you're waiting for the ball to drop. A