Cassidy’s a fighter. There’s no doubt about that. First the kid comes out with a poppy-ass album dancing alongside R. Kelly (and looking uncomfortable as fuck doing it). Then he comes back a little more street with I’m A Hustla, producing the single of his career with the same name. Just as he’s starting to hit stride, the young rapper gets hit with a murder case, though he manages to get out after a little over half a year in prison. Add a near-fatal car accident, and this kid’s been through a lot. With a new outlook of life and a breadth of experience, Cassidy’s back with B.A.R.S. – no doubt meant to be a statement album. But does he end up making a statement reflective of his struggles?

B.A.R.S. begins with a blazing intro which plays out as two of Cassidy’s countless alter-egos, B.A.R.S. and Da Hustla battle it out. While the concept isn’t anything new (Cassidy himself has been on the alter-ego tip for a while), the execution is fantastic. The momentum continues with My Drink & My 2 Step. While it’s a harmless, feel-good club song, it serves very well as an “I’m back, bitches!” joint and shows that Cass really does know how to make a hit.

Unfortunately, things take a quick turn for the worse. Where My Niggas At is as generic as its title suggests, and Will Never Tell(Uh Uh) illustrates Cassidy’s oft-lazy as hell rhyming. However, no song shows how shitty Cassidy can be when he puts his mind to it as Innocent. Not only does he rhyme “man” with “man” about eight times in the song, he drops lyrical gems like this as well: “I spanked the murder like a bad ass six-year-old/I knew I was gonna be rich since I was six years old/Now I’m the richest rapper under twenty-six years old.” Complex stuff – don’t hurt yourself, Cass.

Fortunately, after a considerable number of craptacular songs, things get better down the stretch. Once Cassidy cuts the bullshit cookie cutter rhymes, things get good in this album – really good. Leanin’ On the Lord is ambitious though disjointed, but it’s clearly a step in the right direction. Damn I Miss The Game is truly a gem, as Cass talks about the state of hip hop: “Cats hustlin’ and bustin’ their gat/But Kurtis Blow wasn’t talkin’ bout hustlin’ crack/Everybody on their grind/But Run DMC never killed nobody in their rhyme/They wasn’t on that beef shit/And Melle Mel was the first one to talk that street shit/The day since NWA came out/Cats turned gangsta and took that same route.”

The album finishes out reasonably strong, as Done for Me is great joint with Cassidy counting his blessings. I Get My Paper and Take A Trip are forgettable, but not terrible by any means. The unlikely pairing of Cassidy and John Legend produces the song of the album in Celebrate, and the album closes out nicely with All By Myself.

B.A.R.S. is a step forward for Cassidy. While he hasn’t improved much (if at all) as an emcee, his subject matter has improved by leaps and bounds. Unfortunately, the problem here is execution. While a lot of dudes rhyme really well but aren’t sayin’ shit (Busta Rhymes, anyone?), Cassidy has the opposite problem. With his annoying penchant to be overly-simplistic, many of these songs sound like they could end up on a PG-13 rated version of Sesame Street. Fortunately, perspective is far harder to gain than skill, and in that respect, Cassidy succeeds.