ROTUND, REPETITIVE

“BIG AND BEAUTIFUL.� Fat Boys. Sutra. Though a bit of an improvement over the second album, this third shows that the three rotund rappers still haven’t whipped themselves into shape. The New Yorkers are down to doing a not-very-stirring rap version of James Brown’s “Sex Machine� and repeating motifs--food, fatness, bravado and those same old rhythms. The music again is overly sparse, falling back too often on a synthesizer that sounds like air being squeezed out of a balloon. Still, some things work fairly well, notably a syncopated swinger called “In the House� and the classics-inspired “Rapp Symphony (in c-minor).� But for some reason the fat ones seem to be falling behind in the rap race. Maybe they’re just not hungry enough.--T.A.