Shawnna has a pretty impressive track record: she is the first female signed to Def Jam, and she's also one of two female rappers to ever have a #1 hit for her 2003 song, "Stand Up," with Ludacris. So it is a little surprising that the Chicago native has not become anything near a household name.

Her 2006 album, Block Music, is one of the most fun hip-hop records I've heard in a while. Shawnna has an extremely quick vocal style, which lends itself to some of her raunchy lyrics. Her lead single, "Gettin' Some Head," went Platinum, which is surprising, because I doubt very much of it could air on radio without extensive bleeping. In fact, the song was even retitled for the US to "Getting Some," so as to not offend people.

The lyrics to the song's chorus is simply "Getting some head," and "I was with the kinda girl dat makes yo toes curl." But the song is hugely fun, and sets the tone for the rest of the album, especially the 12th track, "Hit The Black / Slide In," with Yung Berg.

The album's second single, "Damn," is in the same Shawnna vein, replete with lyrics like "Damn damn she got a donkey / and that shit so chunky" and "you can catch me on the yacht we chasin' vodka wit some Fiji /you bitches ain't know I do this shit for fun."

She sure does do it for fun.

Serbian singer Ceca's (pronounced Tsetsa) life sounds like a fairy tale. A demented, warlord filled fairy tell — but a fairy tale nonetheless. She began singing at nine, and was discovered at 14. She is credited with basically popularising a whole genre of music, known as Turbofolk, which is a purely Yugoslavian mixture of traditional folk music with techno.

She became the greatest selling singer in the former Yugoslavia, and is basically regarded as the Madonna of Southern Europe. But then the story gets weird for Ceca. She became a Serbian nationalist and married Serbian paramilitant Arkan, who was wanted for crimes against humanity at the ICJ. Then he was assassinated, dying in her arms.

To this day, she refuses to ever play a show in the Bosnian capital city Sarajevo, or the Croatian capital Zagreb. She has been arrested for weapons charges, and is currently being investigated for money laundering. Oh, and people in Belgrade claim that there isn't a single part of her body that hasn't been "enhanced" by the city's plastic surgeons.

With that kind of background, it is surprising she has any time at all to make music. But fun, pop music she does make, especially on her latest album, Idealno Loša (Ideally Bad). I don't speak a word of Serbain, so the lyrics remain a mystery, but the album is full of so-bad-they're-good pop songs, especially the album's first and second tracks, "Lepi grome moj" and "Idealno Loša."

The album is also filled out by some slower ballads, but all of the songs have a definite Balkan flavour with traditional arrangements and instrumentation.

I'm not quite sure how to categorise Brighton, England-based band Fujiya & Miyagi and their second album, Transparent Things. They are definitely influenced byKraftwerk-style electronica, and in interviews have claimed deep influence from Krautrock. But they also have hints of indie rock, especially the guitar in their songs "In One Ear and Out the Other" and "Conductor 71." And finally, there is a touch of disco bass lines. But the genre pastiche definitely works.

Whenever I put this album on, I have the feeling that I am on a train. All of the songs have a tempo and rhythm that seem perfectly suited to train travel.

The only track that is a miss for me is Cassettesingle, which is also the longest track on the album at over six minutes. It never seems to go anywhere and there are no lyrics. It is a definite low point on an otherwise brilliant album.