Dr. Drew (Boatner) is 43. Although given the copyright on what appears to be his debut, he was 39 when he made it.

Nonetheless, his swag is that of a man entering middle age, in both good and bad ways—a vet of the pre-K Fisher projects, he’s still in there talking about “The Game” as if it were the turn of the millennium, advising his female listeners to “Lean Back” as he attempts to “Knock ’Em Out the Box.”

As he puts it, he’s been rapping “Since ’89, that’s a long damn time.” Indeed.

That probably says more about the state of the genre, however, than it does about Drew himself—hip-hop’s first gen are gonna need their own anthems if they keep going to the club, and Drew’s attack is actually the hardest in the city, at least since everyone followed Weezy’s trail of sizzurp out of town.

Moreover, his fusion of bounce and NOLA second-line rhythms is, as its best, a new high-water mark for the local scene: the title track may be a shameless bid for a Mardi Gras anthem, but damn if it doesn’t sound like they’re twerking behind those police barricades.

Only in the album’s sagging middle stretch, aimed at the R&B market, does Drew sound formulaic; the rest of the time he effectively bridges the (traditionally wide) gap between the 504’s club anthems and its street stories. Bounce was bound to become one of the city’s traditional roots musical forms, anyway.

Here’s where it kicks off.