This 26-year-old Atlantan got her start strutting in Usher’s “Love
in This Club” video and singing “The Way I Are,” the only good song on
Timbaland’s last solo album. Hilson gets a superstar boost from Tim
(and Lil Wayne, Keyshia Cole, Kanye, Ne-Yo and Akon) on her
long-delayed debut. Yet she comes off fiercely independent on In a
Perfect World …, throwing smackdowns left and right to
undeserving guys (“Return the Favor” rides one of Tim’s
electro-staccato beats) and dishing out go-girl support (on the
handclap-driven “Get Your Money Up”). Hilson can’t keep the momentum
for a full hour, and too many of the club jams settle into the
background. But she makes even generic slow cuts like “Energy” throb.
Best of all, “Turnin Me On” features a typical Weezy-in-outer-space
freestyle.
— Michael Gallucci
This article appears in Apr 8-14, 2009.
