BLACK CAESAR IS BACK: M. C. Hammer...

BLACK CAESAR IS BACK: M. C. Hammer may be on top now, with L. L. Cool J making a run at him, but wait--who’s on deck, ready to throw down the year’s hardest rap attack? None other than Big Daddy Kane, who returns next week with a wildly eclectic new album, “Taste of Chocolate.” The record has a killer dance track (“Keep ‘Em on the Floor”); a plea for black positivity (“Who Am I”), which features Malcolm X’s daughter, Gamilah Shabazz, and “Big Daddy vs. Dolomite,” an outrageous dozens-to-the-death insult duel between Kane and Ray (Dolomite) Moore, the legendary black comic. Kane also teams up with Barry White on “All of Me,” a silky duet where White provides Big Daddy with the kind of paternal romantic advice that Humphrey Bogart offered Woody Allen in “Play It Again, Sam.” As always, Kane’s cheeky wordplay reigns supreme, especially on “No Dam Good,” a Kane critique of some old girlfriends. Dissing his ex-playmate Monique, Kane realizes her wardrobe says it all: “Bamboo earrings, all big and looking silly, with extensions hanging down like Milli Vanilli.”