Whether it’s the economic crisis, or just the waxing and waning of music trends, we seem to be witnessing the demise of the bombastic rap/hip-hop star; the one who brags and boasts about making it big, and then subsequently complains—usually in the form of another album release—about the perils of celebrity. What we’re seeing now, instead, is the rap artist who’s not so sure of the value of fame and celebrity, who wonders whether it means anything to be loved by people who hardly know you beyond your lyrics (See: Kayne West, 808s and Heartbreak).

Uffie’s brilliantly titled Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans is an album loaded with these doubts, doubts that keep on circling back on themselves. Do my fans love me? Should I care whether they do or not? Does my success mean I’m really good, or am I just the flavor of the month? Can celebrity that is won so easily—with a few tracks thrown up on myspace—really be worth that much? Are my motives in making music pure, or am I just in it for the cash?

Then there are the doubts that creep in about the doubts: so what if I’m just in it for the cash? Isn’t everybody? If I’m using my fans, aren’t they using me?

Every other song it seems questions the value and point of Uffie’s enterprise. “Art of Uff” wonders why people would talk about her, why they care so intensely about the music she makes, which doesn’t involve all that much work. “MCs Can Kiss”—surely one of the album’s standout tracks—toggles between wanting to kiss off MCs, and hoping that they play her tracks. “Our Song” is the most open and most raw about the doubts of being a star. Uffie muses over the beat about being trapped by celebrity, and admits she can’t really sing. Is she worth all the attention, and what is the attention really worth? Do her fans actually believe in her, or do they just find her music entertaining, a distraction? Does Uffie believe in her fans, or just see them as a source of revenue?

The story is not one of wanting to make it big, no matter the odds, but about what the costs of making big are. They aren’t the typical doubts, of gold digging friends or of the paparazzi, but of gaining the whole world at the cost of losing your soul. What does it mean to want only “the big money,” and to want it to come easy?

But at the end of the day, for all this seemingly refreshing self-questioning, the issue really is the music. Whether or not Uffie is comfortable with her fame, whether she’ll really achieve it, whether she’ll get the big money—in the end these questions don’t matter because her music just isn’t very good. The lyrics are stilted, the melodies unimaginative and the choruses drearily repetitive. The music is heavy and boring. There are some interesting songs, “Difficult” being one of them, where the sing-song refrain becomes hummingly addictive. The title track isn’t bad either, its savage appropriation of the melody from Velvet Underground’s “Rock & Roll” notwithstanding. With some sweet harmonies it sounds like an updated, raunchier version of “It’s My Party.”

Some of the songs, though, are pretty embarrassing. “ADD SUV,” about having attention deficit disorder in a sport utility vehicle seems to have no raison d’etre besides noting that ADD and SUV kind of sound alike. “Pop the Glock,” the song that first earned Uffie some popularity way back in 2006, seems like a poor choice for an opening track. “Hong Kong Gardner” is apparently a paean to one of Uffie’s favorite Chinese restaurants.

It’s the quality of the music that should make us question Uffie’s motives in this album, because the worries about her music might be genuine, but again they might not be. They may just be another pose. Uffie wonders out loud whether she can really sing, whether this fuss about her is worth it. To tell the truth, she can’t sing, and if we make a fuss about her, the joke may be on us. The self-doubting hip-hop artist may be just as much of an act as the bombastic one. If we don’t buy the latter—and we shouldn’t—then we should pause and think before rushing to embracing the former.

Track List:
1. Pop the Glock
2. Art of Uff
3. ADD SUC (feat. Pharrell Williams)
4. Give It Away
5. MCs Can Kiss
6. Difficult
7. First Love
8. Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans
9. Our Song
10. Illusion of Love (feat. Mattie Safer)
11. Neuneu
12. Brand New Car
13. Hong Kong Garden
14. Rickey