As she breaks a three-year silence with her new album, hip-hop heads are wondering: is Foxy Brown's successful partnership with Jay-Z broken too? He's nowhere to be found on her third outing, Broken Silence, and some have drawn their own conclusions, including this one: Foxy's in trouble without him. Don't believe it; while this disc's not as obviously commercial as her first two albums, it's every bit as strong. Though it lacks the usual boatload of hip-hop A-listers, Jamaican superstars Baby Cham, Spragga Benz, and producer Dave Kelly help Foxy offer her deepest and most convincing fusion of rap and reggae yet, on "Oh Yeah" and "Tables Will Turn." And the album should generate at least one monster hit, the Neptunes' ridiculously catchy "Candy." Meanwhile, though it's hard to believe her long feud with rapper Lil' Kim is over after hearing the super-nasty "Run Dem," which opens with the snarling "Who the f--k told these bitches they can do what I do?", Foxy's main lyrical focus is elsewhere. Specifically, there are more (and more entertaining) descriptions of female body parts than in your average Penthouse "Forum." But that makes the deeply personal "The Letter" even more surprising--showing a sad side to hip-hop's baddest girl that suggests she has quite a bit more to say.