The True Meaning picks up where Cormega's stellar debut, The Realness (2001), left off, showcasing earnest, heartfelt, and sometimes sharp-edged rhymes over gritty street-level beats. Love in Love Out -- where Cormega answers Nas' Destroy Rebuild over a crackling sample of the beat from Isaac Hayes' Your Love Is So Doggone Good -- is sure to garner a lot of attention, but there's plenty more to The True Meaning than that one song. The streetwise title track is an obvious highlight, graced with a soulful Diana Ross sample for its hook. Other standouts include The Come Up, a Large Professor production that includes a verse from the Main Source legend (the only guest rap on the entire album); The Legacy, a stunning Alchemist production with a backward-looking lyric; and Built for This, a tough rap with a great beat by J. Waxx Garfield, who is credited with three songs overall. Cormega stands tall as a fearless, confident rapper over the course of The True Meaning, calling himself "Queensbridge's most respected rapper" on Ain't Gone Change, a show-stopping a cappella that sets up the title track perfectly. The True Meaning is an impressive album on many counts and is sure to please hip-hop purists as well as anyone who enjoys well-crafted, intelligent New York rap. ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi

1		Introspective
2		Verbal Graffiti
3		Live Ya Life
4		Ain't Gone Change
5		The True Meaning
6		A Thin Line
7		The Legacy
8		Love in Love Out
9		The Come Up
10		Built for This
11		Soul Food
12		Take These Jewels
13		Endangered Species
14		Therapy