DJ Khaled

DJ Khaled albums are like Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. They contain no nutritional value whatsoever, but only the hard-hearted can resist their charms. Khaled, a Miami-based DJ whose role on his own albums entails little more than recording a bunch of famous hip-hop artists and then screaming over their tracks, had already mastered this format with his first two albums; so We Global is a blast, not surprisingly. “Go Hard,” “Out Here Grindin’,” “Fuck the Other Side” and others come charging out of the gate. They are first-rate pop-rap bangers that get under your skin effortlessly. Sure, the CD is corny – its first words, after all, are “Standing on the mountain top/counting all this money” (perhaps this is a bizarre strategy for escaping the financial crisis). Still, once the Runners’ oversized beats and Khaled’s shrill hype-man routine kicks into gear, you can’t help but get pumped. 4 stars