June 08, 2005 @ 4:40 pm

Olivia - Behind Closed Doors (G Unit)

by: Angie Romero

G Unit’s first lady wins with an unladylike formula.

There is something undeniably sexy about Olivia. It extends well beyond her curves and into Behind Closed Doors, her aptly titled sophomore LP. Like her Inc. peer, Ashanti, G Unit’s first lady won’t be known for her multioctave vocal leaps. But Olivia does manage to take the former Princess of Hip Hop and R&B’s blueprint for fame — the ride-or-die songstress of a rap-dominated camp —and tweak it with raunchiness and street cred.

Along the way, she uses mostly under-the-radar producers to concoct club songs like the crunklike “Move That Thang,” with its monster bass, and the chaotic “Next to You,” which cranks out contagious and deafening siren sounds. When Olivia tones it down, as on the salsa-esque ballad “Closer,” she exhibits impressive range, stretching her pitch effortlessly as she goes from angel to vixen. On red-light specials like “My Daddy” and “So Sexy,” she shamelessly dirty-talks (on the former, she celebrates how her man “lays down that pipe”; on the latter, she asks, “Can you keep it up?”). Add that to the incestuous cameos from G Unit, and she opens the door to naughty joys and guiltless pleasures.

Article tags: Olivia, Behind, Closed, Doors, G, Unit 

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