Like just about every other album on the new (or old, for that matter) {@No Limit} label, {^Game Time} is overlong and musically undernourished, its best songs built on samples threadbare from frequent use. But it also reminds you that labelhead {$Master P} didn't make his millions by accident, because his 12-year-old son, {$Lil' Romeo}, is the embodiment of his true genius: marketing. While nearly every other pint-sized rapper is champing at the bit to be treated like a grownup, {$Lil' Romeo} sounds perfectly content to be a kid on his sophomore outing. (And so does his dad, shrewdly recognizing the potential audience for a G-rated young MC who nevertheless has some street cred, thanks to his bloodlines). The competition would be trying to rhyme an older woman like {$Solange Knowles} into the sack, but when she shows up as {$Romeo}'s duet partner on {&"True Love,"} he's respectful in a way guaranteed to warm the hearts of frazzled parents. Despite the obvious image tinkering behind the scenes, though, his fresh-faced appeal is very real -- the sort of charisma that once made {$Stevie Wonder} and {$Michael Jackson} national sweethearts. {$Lil' Romeo} certainly isn't in that weight class, and his verses don't suggest an incredible musical future, either. Yet his charm gives a spark to even tired creations like {&"2 Way,"} built on the familiar strains of {&"It Takes Two,"} and suggests his true destiny -- like that of another clean-talking young rapper, {$Will Smith} -- probably lies in front of the camera, instead of behind the mic. ~ Dan LeRoy, All Music Guide