Adrian Ruhi

The differences between Carol City-based rappers Flo Rida and Rick Ross are almost hilarious. While Rick Ross feels the need to deny and degrade his perfectly respectable past as a correctional officer for sake of his street cred, Flo Rida never really feels the need to boast about how hood he is to begin with.

On his second studio album, R.O.O.T.S. (which stands for Route of Overcoming The Struggle and has nothing to do with the album’s content), Flo Rida just wants to have fun. And that is more respectable than Rick Ross’s career, because Flo Rida isn’t trying to be anyone he isn’t.

R.O.O.T.S. generously lifts concepts, ideas, lyrics and melodies from several decades’ worth of dance music:

• The unavoidable first single “Right Round” is a strip club version of the 1985 new wave song “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” by Dead or Alive.
• Both “Touch Me” and the Nelly Furtado-assisted “Jump” sample Benny Benassi’s “Satisfaction,” which Flo Rida has already rapped over on DJ Laz’s “Move, Shake, Drop.” That’s three different songs with the sample and Flo Rida raps.
• The obnoxious 1999 gimmick song “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” is sampled on the equally obnoxious second single, “Sugar.” 

The album is rounded out with a few prerequisite song types: Ne-Yo guests on the boring love ballad “Be On You,” and album closer “Rewind” with Wyclef Jean is the standard “dead homies” song.

If you liked Flo Rida’s debut, Mail On Sunday, you’ll probably equally enjoy R.O.O.T.S., even though the latter is much more club-oriented.

Otherwise, the album is nothing special: A few decent party jams on an otherwise forgettable album.