WITH HIS FORTHCOMING ALBUM GEMINI, CASH MONEY CROONER TQ DISPLAYS HIS SOFTER SIDE

There are at least two faces to Every Gemini and now that Compton-bred TQ is done exorcising his inner block buster, he's ready to break out the straight-shooting, bleeding-heart loverboy. It might be cliched to call TQ an R&B thug, but that's pretty close to how he'd describe himself.

"I live a rapper's life" TQ says, explaining why it was only right that Baby of Cash Money signed him back in 2001. "I cam up with hip-hop, it's in me and it' in my music, but I'm a singer, a straight-up, old school R&B cat, not a rapper. I can't rap, don't rap and don't wanna rap" he informs.

It's not surprising that he's worried about being compared to rappers-his 1998 single, "Westside", which bigged up tha Cali region, garnered him unlikely comparisons to Tupac. "I never considered myself a rapper and I never compared myself to Tupac," says TQ."That all came from other people." But once folks get their hands on his upcoming album Gemini, there won't be any confusion.

From the silky hook on "Don't Stop" to the R. Kelly produced and penned "Up In The Club," Gemini is full of smooth, candlelight-and-champagne music. But don't get it twisted, TQ hasn't gone soft, he just provides the best of both worlds. "I'm a Gemini," he says. "I'll always be two ways."