Audio Mixers: Dylan Dresdow; Tony Maserati.

Recording information: Chalice Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Cubano Studio, Los Angeles, CA; Ethernet Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Lhima Studios, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; Record Plant, Hollywood, CA; Spiral Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Zacs Recording Studios, Atlanta, GA.

Photographer: Joseph Cultice.

Will.i.am's success as a producer for the likes of John Legend, Fergie, and Macy Gray, among others, rivaled the enormous popularity of his own group, Black Eyed Peas. SONGS ABOUT GIRLS is the producer/rapper's major-label solo debut, and while critics might turn their noses up at will.i.am's commercially tailored pop-rap, there is no denying the man's production skills. Like Kanye West, another rap artist whose true genius lies in track-making, will.i.am is no great shakes on the mic. Fortunately, the rapping isn't foregrounded here; instead it tastefully fills space between bouts of dazzling production work.

The opening track, co-written with Jeff Lynne, takes a sample from ELO's "It's Over" to build an immediately infectious jam that weighs in as one of the most bumping break-up songs of 2007. The lead-off single "I Got It From My Mama" may have nabbed attention for its call-and-response segments and insistent hook, but it's outpaced by production gems like "Get Your Money" and "The Donque Song," which features a cameo by Snoop Dogg. Fans of Black Eyed Peas and pop-rap in general shouldn't miss SONGS ABOUT GIRLS, but neither will anyone invested in the art of hip-hop production.

Boasting the best album-length production of the year, will.i.am's Songs About Girls is a tour de force of next-generation contemporary R&B, all of it devoted to girls -- girls he wants, girls he wants back, girls who are gone, girls he's glad are gone, and, of course, girls trying hard to make a living for their family as strippers. Although the trailer single, "I Got It from My Mama," had threatened to become even more obnoxious and unescapable than Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" -- replacing Fergie's awkward come-ons with will.i.am's clumsy rapping -- it's the lone note of pandering on this record. (Perhaps another should be guest Snoop Dogg lofting the word "donque" into the popular consciousness.) Recorded everywhere from Rio to The Record Plant, Songs About Girls percolates with more innovation, enthusiasm, and excitement than contemporary work by Pharrell, Kanye West, Mark Ronson, or anyone else remotely in the same league. Fortunately, will keeps the anthemic rapping to a minimum, instead sing-speaking or pleading plaintively behind a parade of filters and emoting rather than motivating. Musically, there's all manner of technical wizardry on display, including vocoderized electronics, surprisingly acid-washed synth on "The Donque Song" (how long has it been since Snoop Dogg rapped over a 303, doctored or not), and "Get Your Money," the latter of which may be the classic tale of a stripper with a heart of gold, but, powered by a swing-house M.A.N.D.Y. sample, should provide the requisite credibility to rehabilitate the man who unleashed "humps" on the populace. ~ John Bush