ESPN Presents: Jock Jams, Volume 3

Any record that leads off with Dick Vitale's ubiquitous jabberings is asking for trouble, and this third volume in the Jock Jams series is musically ill-equipped to pull out of the ensuing tailspin. The collection of inoffensive rap songs and R&B-tinged dance numbers does have a few highlights. KC and the Sunshine Band's "That's the Way I Like It," regardless of what sort of material it shares company with here, is a classic, and Blackstreet kick out a decent rhyme with Dr. Dre on "No Diggity." On the whole, it might even make a passable soundtrack for an aerobics class. Besides that, however, you'll have to swim through a lot of musical filler and testosterone-driven flotsam to find anything that rises above an overwhelming and acute mediocrity. --Matthew Cooke