Nas - God's Son

After regaining his rightful status as the greatest in the game with 2001's incredible Stillmatic album, and then cementing the deal in '02 with both a compilation (The Lost Tapes) and a bullshit EP (From Illmatic to Stillmatic: The Remixes), it seemed that Nasir Jones was once again at a high point. In the public eye, the man was back at the top, going out of his way to diss everyone in the game and still gaining support from all of the hip-hop heads, who at this time were in awe at the man's astonishing comeback. Behind the scenes, however, all was not well for Nasir. Tragically, his mother passed away in hospital on April 7th of 2002, and this deeply troubled Nas, but also gave him new inspiration and emotion to pour into a new album, which he titled God's Son after the tattoo he had placed on his belly. The project was lead off by two of the most successful singles of the man's career, "I Can" and "Made You Look", and when it came out in November of 2002, it was quite the event. 

For starters, this wasn't long after Jay-Z had dropped his 2002 effort The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse, on which was a song directed specifically at Nasir, the title track no less, that questioned the man's legitimacy as a spokesperson for "real" hip-hop. And let's not forget that Hov had prior to this dropped a single diss entitled "Supa Ugly", one of the more personal and mean-spirited diss-tracks in hip-hop history, at least until all the drama that occurred recently. Yes, he apologised for it at the request of his mother, but what had been said had been said, and if anyone thought that Nas was going to let such disrespectful tracks go ignored, then they were sorely disappointed when God's Son was put out. Yes, there was a disstrack to Hov on here, but unlike with Stillmatic, that song wasn't the main event. This album as a whole has been praised for containing some of the greatest Nasir songs ever, including the aforementioned "Made You Look", as well as "Get Down" and "Dance", and it is often regarded as one of the more underrated releases in his catalogue - despite the success of some of the singles, this album stands as one of Nasir's lowest charting to date. 

Why this is, I'm not sure, because this project not only had the much anticipated second Hova response on it, but it also had a decent selection of features - a posthumous 2Pac was added, and so were two of the more popular singers in early 2000s R&B, Kelis and Alicia Keys. And on top of this, we had production from Eminem (wow!), Salaam Remi, The Alchemist and Chucky Thompson amongst some other names, including Ron Browz, who wasn't quite yet the miserably bad messiah of wailing autotune that he would grow to be - that guy produced Ether, believe it or not. The line-up on here was great, and even if the general public weren't as hyped about this as some of Nas' previous efforts, it seems, I personally was ecstatic to receive this CD for my 15th birthday - that's exactly two years and one day ago, might I add. So, does God's Son live up to both the incredible album and astonishing compilation projects released before it? Well, let's get into it. 

1. Get Down (prod. Nas & Salaam "The Chameleon" Remi)

Back when Salaam Remi went by the more creative moniker of "The Chameleon" - this would sadly soon be dropped. Over a funky and truly iconic instrumental that he actually helped produce alongside the aforementioned Salaam, Nas tells a couple of stories based on real life events that he heard about, that overall aim to critique the lifestyle and also situations that a lot of young black men are or were forced into around this time. In the first verse, he talks about a gangsta who was locked up in jail for something he didn't do, and then during his trial he decided to shoot up the whole courtroom and hold the judge for ransom out of rage, which was a story told in a strange way that detailed Nas' own reality at the same time, and aimed to express his thoughts that this could've been him. In the second verse he talks about a trip to L.A. where he ended up getting caught in a sort of beef against these dudes that gave him a laced blunt - it ends up with a man being shot inside a hospital, and a whole bunch of other people being killed, which ended up involving Nas because he was down with one of these crews. The storytelling in this song is made even more impressive by the intriguing structure and the incredible rhyme schemes, and Nas paints a vivid picture with his words here in the same way he always does. Oh, and that instrumental? One of the greatest of all time. There's a reason everyone remembers this joint. 

2. The Cross (prod. Eminem)

On this song, Nas humbly imagines himself as the Jesus of hip-hop, not too much of a stretch when you realise what the title of this album might actually refer to. This song definitely doesn't stand up to the first song, largely due to Eminem's slow paced, monotone instrumental that sounds like everything else he ever produced, but it's still pretty stellar nonetheless - Nas delivers two excellent verses filled with references to his personal life, with the second verse offering his thoughts on his issues with women (remember, his girlfriend in the late '90s actually slept with his arch-nemesis), and the first tackling issues with his brother Jungle, and also coming up with a new acronym for his name - isn't it always fun when rappers do that? The chorus and beat on here aren't entirely entertaining, but I still like Nas' verses enough to call it a winner. 

3. Made You Look (prod. Salaam "The Chameleon" Remi)

After an abrupt gunshot that cuts the last song short, the big single from this album starts up, one that is often seen as Nas' best post-Illmatic tune. I wouldn't go that far, as I would take a "Nas Is Like", or a "The Message" over this any day, but that's not to be taken as a knock towards this one in any way - in fact, it's more of a reflection of just how many incredible songs appear in Nas' catalogue. Hell, to me this isn't even the best song yet on this album - that'd be "Get Down". And yet and still, this song is indeed incredible, and deserves all the accolade that it has received over the years. The instrumental from Salaam Remi sounds slick, and yet still sounds like it's straight from the gutter at exactly the same time, with there being less of a melody, and more of weird sound effects with the occasional hint of a bassline coming in here and there. It's Nas that really makes this one though, with one liners that are a staple of conversation to this day, and boasts that rival that of the biggest egomaniacs on the planet. "Don't say it's topless - say the titties is out" is a fucking terrible line, but it's also bloody hilarious, and that's probably more than part of the reason why it's so iconic. And who could forget "you a slave to a page in my rhyme book"?? This song is incredible. and the little acapella bit at the end somehow makes it even better. What a classic single. 

4. Last Real Nigga Alive (prod. Ron Browz)

And so, here we are. The disstrack towards Jay-Z, once again produced by Ron Browz in his "prime" of sorts, and it's quite honestly my favourite track on the whole record. Yes, "Ether" is still the slightly better diss in my opinion simply due to its brute force, but this one is no slouch either - like Hov did on his song "Blueprint 2", Nas goes less for the things about Jay that is plain to see, and more in at him for personal flaws, and observations Nas has made behind the scenes. I think the most brutal line on this song has to be "in the middle of that, Jay tried to sneak attack, assassinate my character, degrade my hood", which comes right after Nas spends a few bars talking about his final moments with his mother. Obviously Jay-Z didn't spend time meticulously calculating as to how he could kick Nas at his most vulnerable position, as that would make him a truly awful person, but Nas does word it in a way here that makes it seem like this was the case, and that is truly a brutal shot - painting Jay as a meddling evil entity who brags about fucking a man's wife on record while said man is spending time in hospital with his very sick mother. The overall structure of this track is very creative too, with Nas actually devoting very little of these two long verses to shooting at Jay, and instead delivering a hip-hop history lesson that aims to explain the rise of Jay-Z, and how he came to be in a similar position to Nas. The actual disses are brutal, but the way he went about this track was very creative too, and that I appreciate. And I know he sung the chorus of "Arab Money", but there's no way anyone doesn't like this Ron Browz beat, especially that part when the drums cut out before the final hook. This is honest to God my favourite song here. Fantastic stuff. "It hurt when I had to kill him, and his whole squad for dolo..."

5. Zone Out (feat. Bravehearts) (prod. Salaam "The Chameleon" Remi)

There was no way that God's Son was going to keep up such a potent run for long, and oh would you look at that it hasn't. I don't think anyone could have predicted this crap to appear on such an album though - this song seriously sucks. To be perfectly honest, I actually don't even mind this instrumental - it's not in any way conventional, sure, but it is unique, and I love the weird electronic noises that go up and down throughout. Unfortunately, this beat is not at all suited for people to actually rap over, much less people who are members of the worst group in early 2000s hip-hop - the bloody Bravehearts. Look, I know Jungle is Nas' brother and his rap name is pretty cool, but on the mic this guy truly ain't shit - his voice sucks, and his lyrics suck even more. And on this beat, he can't even incorporate a good flow to save himself. Not that Wiz does any better, that is, and I don't even like Nas' performance - he spends the first few lines spelling out a bunch of words for no other reason than to apparently fill up space. The only, I repeat only good bar in this song is this diss to Cam'Ron - "you got a house in Virginia, the only way you sicker than us". That line's pretty funny. But otherwise, even the Nas Stans can admit - this shit is fucking whack.

6. Hey Nas (feat. Kelis & Claudette Ortiz of City High) (prod. Salaam "The Chameleon" Remi)

Truth be told, I was never truly convinced by this song either, but after the monstrosity that was "Zone Out", I'm sure listeners will just be happy to hear a normal instrumental and verses not done by members of the Bravehearts. After stating on "The Cross" that he didn't feel entirely comfortable doing R&B songs, Nas apparently once again puts himself into discomfort by including a plainly R&B influenced tune on here that involves him stating how he needs a faithful chick who won't have sex with his enemies. Sounds obvious, but you have to remember what his last girl did to him. Also, having both of these singers in to sing pretty much the same thing just comes across as him boasting about his high up connections, which probably wasn't the intention, but oh well. The instrumental on here is dreadfully bland, and you certainly won't be humming this chorus to yourself while walking home from a long day at the office, but if you're into love tunes that don't have much in the way of real passion, you'll probably enjoy this. This song is more interesting to me as a piece of curiosity - firstly, Nas' longtime collaborator AZ had a song entitled "Hey AZ" about five years before this - I wonder how he felt about that - , and also, Nas ended up marrying one of these two female singers a couple of years after this song's release. Ain't that some interesting shit?

7. I Can (prod. Salaam "The Chameleon" Remi)

The lead single unless I'm very much mistaken, and pretty much the polar opposite to the other single from the album, "Made You Look". On this one, Nas' takes the incredibly familiar melody of Beethoven's "Für Elise", and raps over it in an interesting move that does kind of work, but also comes across as rather gimmicky today. I can't imagine that this song was ever actually played anywhere, but as a motivational anthem for the kids, it works, as Nas teaches the youth on the dangers of drugs, rapists and STDs, and a multitude of the other things that make the world such a crappy place. The chorus is a bit silly, and there's no way I can take this beat seriously, but I think that Nas took what he had and made something pretty listenable out of it with some very stellar verses. This song is alright. 

8. Book Of Rhymes (prod. The Alchemist)

I never really realised until my relisten today just how much of this album was produced by Salaam Remi - that guy has covered all but two of the songs so far. What's even more weird is that he doesn't show up again on the album - interesting sequencing choice. Say what you will about Nas, but there's no knocking the man's creativity - on this song, he reads from a book of various rhymes he had written a while ago, and the results are astonishingly entertaining, with the rhymes that Nas does read out actually not being bad in my opinion - the only iffy point being that the verses are inevitably thematically random. The instrumental from The Alchemist is easily one of his best too, but it's Nas that makes this the classic it is. I especially love when he rhymes his ad-libs with the words he's reading on the page - "amongst hustlers, crack sellers, liars and squares - nah, that was weak there" has to be one of the best moments here. Nasir also displays more humour on this one song than he did on the entire Stillmatic album, so that's something. This is definitely the best song since "Last Real Nigga Alive", which is pretty funny considering these are supposed to be Nas' throwaway rhymes. But if we learned anything from The Lost Tapes, it's that you don't always realise when you're throwing away your best material.

9. Thugz Mansion (N.Y.) (feat. 2Pac & J. Phoenix) (prod. Claudio Cueni & Michael Herring)

This song originally appeared as a 2Pac solo on his 2002 posthumous album Better Dayz, and then it was remixed by Nas, also appearing on that same album. This is therefore the third different version, and since it appears on the Nas record, it makes sense that there's more Nas than Pac. This retains Nas' verse from that remix, keeping it for last, and also takes 2Pac's second verse on that song, putting it in the middle. The first verse from Nas on this version is all new to this album. This song is quite inventive, as it is spit over nothing but what sound like acoustic guitars, giving the song a bright and completely innocent atmosphere that I normally wouldn't enjoy, but I actually think works really well here. The verses from Nas that imagine a place for people growing up in the hood to reside after they pass are both very stellar, but my favourite verse probably belongs to Pac, purely because of the content that revolves around him speaking to his mother from heaven - it's crazy, as this verse was only released after his passing. This shit damn near makes me cry every time, and rest assured that Nas does his thing on here too. Shit, even the sung hook is good. This is an excellent track. 

10. Mastermind (prod. The Alchemist)

I remember when I was younger I used to always praise this, for the odd reason that it wasn't incredible, but merely good. For some reason I found that to be a positive point. This track exhibits more of a mafioso feel, with the lyrical content being very similar to what we found on some of the songs on It Was Written - if it wasn't for the beat sounding so futuristic, maybe it could have passed for something from there. This song is all about Nas describing himself as a mastermind mob boss, or at least the first two verses are, with him talking about his meetings with other crime gurus, and also how to avoid getting caught up in unnecessary drama. In the third verse, Nas actually talks about his real life, leading me to believe that this song serves to paint Nas as a master of his craft - he is to the rap world whatever the head of the mob is to the mob (I don't know much about organised crime, I'm sorry). There's also another mention of the "King Of New York" idea in the third verse here, which I find to be very interesting. All these years later, I still find this to be a very stellar song, with great rapping from Nasir and a fantastic instrumental. This is a dope cut. 

11. Warrior Song (feat. Alicia Keys) (prod. Alicia Keys)

Featuring and produced by Alicia Keys, and yet this is actually one of the harder hitting songs on the album. The instrumental (preceded by what sounds like tribal chanting at the beginning of the song) is intense and exciting, and Nas' flow is quite different for him, aiming to keep the pace of the beat. The lyrical content on here is pretty solid too - the first verse is just some motivational bullshit that sounds OK, but during the second verse Nas actually goes into his feelings surrounding his mother's death, and with the most focus on that subject exhibited so far on this LP. The third verse talks about the people that went behind Nas' back, which is also interesting subject matter, but I think the most engaging and well-written has to be that second verse. The chorus here is also very catchy - the only part I don't like is the weird "I've been high, I've been low" bridge that seems to appear constantly, that has Nas and Alicia singing in union. It's not terrible, but it is rather annoying. Still, this song has grown on me a decent amount, considering I used to think it was boring as shit. 

12. Revolutionary Warfare (feat. Lake) (prod. The Alchemist)

I've never loved this one - firstly, there's the fact that it's a motivational song that comes right after another motivational song, but there's also the repetitive hook, which I really don't like at all. Shit, I don't even like this song title - it just looks corny to me. Alchemist's beat on here is OK, but it gets old fast, and so it's left up to the MCs to attempt to save this one. None of these verses are bad, but aside from some good ("you ain't a man, you a coward if you can't support the girl you put a seed in") and bad ("modern day Hitler" - the fuck was that??) lines, not too much stands out. I honestly don't have much to say - this song really doesn't do a whole lot for me. 

13. Dance (prod. Chucky Thompson)

Shit, you wouldn't think an album that included a song as ridiculously stupid as "Zone Out" would also have the potential to make you cry twice, but here we are. Over an enormously sentimental beat from the Hitmen's Chucky Thompson, that seems to have been lab crafted to extract water from your eyes, Nas dedicates a whole song to reminiscing on his life with his mother, and speaking on how much he misses her. The verses on here contain multitudes of terribly sad tales that really do get you in your feels - it's surely a pain that nearly every man will go through in their life, and Nas had to go through it younger than most, so with him it would be even sadder. The chorus on here is slightly silly, with the aggressive "if I could only have" juxtaposing heavily with the almost squeaky singing voice Nas uses on the rest of said chorus, but the verses make up for it by including some of Nas' most heartfelt and passionate moments on record to date. And perhaps the moment that will truly send any heavyweight rugby player into a bawling mess of tears is when Nas' father Old Dara comes in for a bit of noodling on the cornet at the end of the song, showing how the pair of them got together to pay tribute to Nas' mother in the end. This is one of the saddest hip-hop songs of all time, and one of the best on this album, easily. 

14. Heaven (feat. Jully Black) (prod. Agile, co-prod. Saukrates)

Caught a mistake! - Jully Black gets a feature credit in the booklet here, but not the back cover. Now that's bloody annoying. An interesting thing to notice about this is that Redman's protege Saukrates receives a production credit on this song, and what's more, he also provides vocals on this chorus. Intriguing stuff. Anyway, this track is definitely another highlight on this album. Nas' flow and rhyme scheme throughout his two verses is something to be marvelled at every single time, and the chorus on here is catchy as all hell. I really enjoy the slightly menacing beat on this track too. As for Nas' actual content, this song appears to simply be him discussing, you guessed it, the idea of heaven, which he already did on "Thugz Mansion", but whatever. The chorus exemplifies the message of the song best - if getting to heaven was easy, would you do it, or would you continue to live out your life on this Earth? It's an interesting dilemma, and one Nas handles well if you ask me. Him starting to rap a third verse but then turning it into a bullshit spoken outro was a bit mean-spirited though, I have to say. Still, this is a fantastic way to end the album. 

Certain pressings of God's Son were issued with a bonus disc, which I shall now discuss since I do own it. 

1. Thugz Mirror (Freestyle) (prod. The Alchemist)

Nas drops a freestyle over a very weird instrumental from The Alchemist that is made up of some disjointed drums, and some reversed sound effect, and that's about it. I don't mind this, and for a freestyle Nas does manage to cram in a lot of political messages, but since this isn't something that Nas can have put much thought into, I'll do him a favour and not overanalyse anything here. 

2. Pussy Killz (prod. Chucky Thompson)

By far and away the best song to appear on this bonus disc. The start of this one sounds like the beginning of Redman's "Da Da DaHHH", but the actual sample was oddly used in a different rap song that I also love - DMX's "Stop Being Greedy". The instrumental on this thing is quite unsettling, and also very good, and Nas uses it to spit two verses that discuss exactly what you may have discerned from the title - how lust can lead to murder. The first verse speaks on this in more generic terms, and it's OK, but really what you're coming into this one for is the second verse, where Nas spits a tale about a gentleman he is friends with, who mistakenly believes he has spotted his wife in the audience of a boxing match that he's watching on TV, with another man. Even after it's proved it wasn't actually her, the guy still goes absolutely mental, leading to a harrowing ending to the song that does leave you feeling quite sad. This song should have replaced "Hey Nas" on the album - imagine how badass that would've been!

3. The G.O.D. (prod. Swizz Beatz)

The most aggressive of the three bonus songs on here, one that is musically pretty weak, but does have some interesting lyrical moments that make it worth the listen. The instrumental from Swizz Beatz on here is pretty cheap sounding all in all (well, what did you expect), and while the chorus that spells out the album title is fairly entertaining, the part where Nas starts singing is simply painful to witness. It's the verses that are the main point of interest, though - during the first verse, Nasir references his beef with Hot 97, and calls back to the Cam'Ron disses that appeared on "Zone Out". And during the second verse, he gets to reminding us of how he destroyed all of the rappers that he helped to come up on the previous album's "Destroy & Rebuild". Unfortunately, fairly interesting verses don't make up for shit beat and shit singing. Sorry, Nas.

While it stands as one of his more inconsistent albums to date if you ask me, God's Son is still a pretty fantastic listen. This album proves that as Nas has gotten older he has also gotten more mature, and it also shows that he is still able to make music of the same quality that he released during his heyday. It's just unfortunate that this album is bogged down by some weak moments that really didn't feel like they were there on Stillmatic or The Lost Tapes. I mean, everyone knows "Zone Out" is pretty crap, but "Hey Nas" and "Revolutionary Warfare" are both pretty inessential too, and I feel like "I Can" should have remained a novelty single, and should not have landed on this profanity filled album with some of the more aggressive tracks to appear in Nas' entire career. Still, for the most part this is a very well-produced, very well-rapped album that contains some of the more experimental ideas of Nas' career, whether that be the rapping over acoustic guitars only on "Thugz Mansion (N.Y.)", taking rhymes he had thrown away years ago and delivering them for us now on "Book Of Rhymes", or taking arguably the most unique approach to a disstrack we have seen in the history of hip-hop music on "Last Real Nigga Alive". And when it comes to the highs this album has, boy are they there, and in spades. "Get Down" is one of the greatest opening songs in hip-hop history (and still isn't as good as "N.Y. State Of Mind" or "The Message" - boy, this guy is good), "Made You Look" is a fantastic hardcore banger for the streets, and the final two songs stand as some of the most thought provoking, tear inducing music of the early 2000s. This album is not perfect, as it's sound isn't at all consistent and there's some pretty prominent duds in there, but for a large portion of this album you will not only be entertained, but also wowed by the incredible storytelling, masterful flows and rhyme schemes, and incredibly memorable production exhibited on about 75% of the songs here. I'd definitely recommend a listen of this album - it proved that Nas could make the personal, insightful stuff without sacrificing any of his image, and I think for what it attempted to do, it did very, very well. This is a great LP.

Best Tracks: Get Down, The Cross, Made You Look, Last Real Nigga Alive, Book Of Rhymes, Thugz Mansion (N.Y.), Dance, Heaven, Pussy Killz

Worst Tracks: Zone Out, Hey Nas

Way, way more on Nasir to be found if you click here.

Announcement Time

Since I'm turning 17 tomorrow, and college is starting back up in a few weeks too, I thought I'd give some update news for the incredible four-ish regular readers I have managed to amass since starting this blog up way back in March. Since I'm moving into second year of college (that's for 17/18 year olds, my American viewers), I'm imagining that I won't have time to do anywhere near the amount of write-ups I am currently doing whilst I'm on holiday (not actually on holiday, that is - just the school holiday). Therefore, what I'll instead do is very much slow down with the reviews of older albums I've already heard, and devote more time to writing up review/reaction pieces like I am doing for my Murs-athon posts. I'll still be continuing with what I originally intended to do - that's listen to and write reviews on the entire discographies of artists whom I'm interested in - but I'll only be reviewing shit I'm already familiar with when I have the time to do so. 

Some of the artists who I intend to "discover" in the next few months are: 

Aesop Rock

Atmosphere

Mr. Lif

Talib Kweli

Juvenile

Lil Wayne (I know, I know, but you've gotta admit a run through his catalogue could be funny)

This shouldn't be an issue, as these are generally of pretty similar quality to reviews of albums I've heard countless times before anyway, and while you might say "your opinion will change over time", it generally doesn't when you concentrate hard enough on first listen to be writing stuff up on every song. Odd, but, as I've found, very true. 

On top of that, being that I'm young and only tend to listen to albums I've bought on CD, I've already covered a surprisingly large portion of the stuff that I've listened to in my lifetime, so that could be fatal if I don't slow down soon. Oh, and I'm also thinking I could do some "new music Friday" write-ups for stuff I'm interested in - despite what you might have gathered from the fact that pretty much every album I've covered so far is from pre-2010, I do actually like a lot of modern hip-hop too (not Future, though - he sucks). And, if I really get carried away, I might introduce some discussion-type posts on here too to add to the multitude of reviews that, rest assured, will still be coming your way.

Anyway, thanks so much for the views I've been getting so far this year, and I hope the blog will continue to grow even more from here. So, I'll see y'all in the next one!!

(Oh, and if anyone has any album suggestions or interesting ideas, feel free to post 'em in the comments. I'm out)

Murs-athon pt. 13 - Love & Rockets Vol 1: The Transformation

The last Murs project I reviewed on here was Varsity Blues 2, and if I'm being perfectly honest, I didn't feel it much at all. Yes, a couple of the tracks were pretty dope, but one of them was a previously released song anyway, and when it was bad, it was bad. Shit like "Bummed Out Blues" and "She's So Lost" were some of the weakest shit I've heard in this entire Murs-athon. Hell, I'd rather listen to stuff on Sweet Lord than those cuts. Still, the fact that I was unmoved by the album as a whole doesn't turn me off from the excitement surrounding the next project in Murs' catalogue, and the album I'll be listening to today - the extravagantly titled Love & Rockets Vol 1: The Transformation, apparently so called because Murs transitioned from having hair to not having hair during the recording of this project. 

This album was released on October 11th of 2011, and it's disputed where exactly it falls into the Murs catalogue. The only name that is listed on the front cover is that of Murs himself, and so therefore one might assume that this falls in as his 6th solo studio album, a follow up to the stellar Murs For President he dropped back in 2008. However, there are a lot of people who would list this amongst his many collaborative projects, the reason for that being that this album was entirely produced by Ski Beatz (except one track, apparently) - that's the same Ski Beatz who worked on Jay-Z's first two albums, yes, and was the man behind "Dead Presidents". So, already I'm excited for this record - that's no no-name producers cooking up weird rock and folky beats. Instead, we have a revered boom-bap producer who made the beats to some of Jay-Z's best '90s cuts. I mean, how can you argue with "Streets Is Watching"? "22 Two's"? "Politics As Usual"? This guy is clearly a mastermind - the question is, was he still on the same caliber in 2011? 

Well, fans of rapper Curren$y would tell you "yes", as the man had done some work with him, but personally I haven't heard any of his later work, so I don't know. Let's stop talking about him now, though, and instead focus on the star attraction - that's Nicholas Carter, also known as Murs. This album was one of the man's biggest and most successful (it's all relative, remember) to date, with "Remember 2 Forget" being one of his most streamed songs, and "Animal Style" not being far behind - in fact, I've heard the latter of those already, and I can say with confidence it's one of the best Murs songs ever, and one of the most daring song concepts in hip-hop history. Just wait until we get to it, you'll see. The features on this thing are fairly sparse, with the only ones I'm even slightly familiar with being West Coast veteran O.C. and TDE signee Ab-Soul, with the rest of them being names I personally have never come across before. I mean, Locksmith? Tabi Bonney? Come on, no-one knows these guys. Also, we have Dee-1, with whom Murs dropped a project in 2020 titled He's the Christian, I'm the Rapper - not a title that gives me much hope, but we'll see. 

This album is 13 tracks long, and so it's not too lengthy, but still certainly long enough to classify it as a proper album. The question is, is this an album that will improve Murs' discography, or lessen it's worth to a large degree? Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

Also, that album cover is fucking sick - that alone makes me more intrigued for the project. 

All songs produced by Ski Beatz except where noted.

1. Epic Salutations

I can't lie, this song title really makes me want to like this one. I know, it's silly, but I guess that's how things go sometimes. Over a fairly unorthodox instrumental that starts off drumless but then builds into something more hip-hop like, Murs raps about a bunch of random shit, including adventures in space, dealing drugs to aliens, and (toward the beginning) his own impact on the genre, and how he believes he's been a substantial part of it. He also mentions how he has quality and quantity, something you can't really deny when looking at his discography so far, even if there has been a couple of iffy moments. This song is just one long verse over some fantastically weird yet equally celebratory music from Ski Beatz, and Murs sounds invigorated and excited to be in the booth. This was probably the best way he could have possibly introduced us to the record. "While I'm slanging moon rocks to these alien fellas!"

2. Remember 2 Forget

Well, it seems that we're at the break up songs already, but I don't mind that, as I actually enjoyed this one. Even though the "2" in the title is irksome, the whole "remembering to forget a relationship" concept of this is really interesting, and probably has given many support when they find themselves in the dire situation where they can't get over a lost love. The instrumental on this thing isn't too down, with Ski Beatz providing a fairly spacey sounding beat with use of a sample that reminds of 9th Wonder, and Murs' actual lyrical content on this thing was good, even if it reminds of other songs in his catalogue, such as "A Part Of Me". Also, the hook is really, really memorable. This was actually a dope track - there's a reason it's one of his most famous. 

3. 67 Cutlass

Murs kicks his first proper storytelling rap of the day, and it's another absolute success. The instrumental on this thing has an old-school boom-bap flavour that I just adore, and it's the perfect place for Murs to spit - and man is this guy good at laying out a story. On this one, we hear a tale of Murs and his buddy rolling around in their vehicle, and with some shrooms in there too, and then they get pulled over by a police car, so they're like "aww, shit". Then, they eat all the shroomz just before the cop gets there, and he tells Murs to pop the trunk. He does, and there's weed in there, albeit not his weed. So, his buddy admits to the cop that it's his weed, and then runs off into the distance, knocking the cop down. As the pig tries to get back up, Murs trips him over, and he hits his head on the side of the car and fucking dies, not a turn I was expecting the story to take. So, Murs and his friend put him in the boot, and head off to the woods to bury him, and just as the police helicopters start circling to find the two murderers, the shrooms kick in. What's funny is that I just told that whole story after one listen, and with no transcription in front of me. That's just how invigorating and fantastic Murs is here. This was another fantastic cut. 

4. Eazy-E

Track four on this album is a light-hearted and celebratory tribute to the West Coast hip-hop artists who paved the way for Murs and others like him, and I absolutely loved it. Murs drops as many names here as you'd hear on the average The Game song, but it works in this instance as he pays tribute to Ice Cube, E-40, WC, and of course Eazy-E, as well as many others. The song also starts with a reference to a line from Ice Cube's "It Was a Good Day", so that was dope too. Ski's instrumental on this thing was simply beautiful, with great melodies and dope drums, and Murs' verses were filled with classic reference for the West Coast fanboys to vibe to. And this had easily the best hook on the album so far, too - that chorus was nice as hell. This was a fantastic tribute cut, and arguably as good as Murs' other dedication to his hometown "L.A.". Well, maybe...

5. Hip Hop & Love (feat. Tabi Bonney)

A collaboration with another hip-hop artist called Tabi Bonney, who I had never actually heard of until now, but whatever. This actually appeared on one of his projects before this Murs one, I believe, and it's easy to tell, as this has a very different atmosphere to what we've seen so far. It's still good, though - this one's a tribute to hip-hop as a whole, and Bonney's opening verse was definitely decent, even if his delivery was a little bit sleepy. The chorus was alright, but really it was Murs who made this better - he uses a deeper voice than usual on this one that reminds me of his performance on "Lookin' Fly", and it's for the better, as the rapping from him on here is dope as hell, especially in his second verse where he shouts a bunch of artists who inspired him. As for the production, it was a pretty basic West Coast upbeat tune that you could ride your convertible to in the sunshine - or at least that's what I got from it. This wasn't fantastic like the first four songs, but I still certainly enjoyed it a lot. 

6. International

Well, Murs has never been one for the most conventional subject matter (remember "West Coast Cinderella"? How about "She's So Lost"? No? Oh yeah - they both sucked), but even if making a whole song about how you like to fly and the act of actually getting on a plane isn't guaranteed to captivate, Murs does a nice job of it on here, especially when it comes to lines like "nope I don't smoke weed, but do I stay high? Yes!". This is of course largely helped by Ski's jazzy instrumental, which is all kinds of excellent, but even without such a brilliant beat, I would most likely still find myself very entertained by Murs' lyrics on this song - there's even a Cheers reference in there, which was appreciated. This song was dope as hell. 

7. S-K-I-B-E-A-T-Z (feat. Locksmith)

This was certainly one of the songs that stood out on this tracklist thanks to the title, and also the feature from a gentleman under the stage name Locksmith - now that's intriguing to me. And this song was bloody good, man. As much as I love Murs' "everything is wonderful" attitude a lot of the time, it's nice to hear him get back to dissin' whack rappers and being a cocky twat throughout this one - even if he discredits his own work at the end of both of his verses, and says "let's get back to the music". Some of the lines on this thing were straight hilarious, such as "she got a crazy body, but she a stupid-ass" - that one genuinely had me laughing. The instrumental meanwhile once again utilises horns, but unlike on the last song which was quite subdued, these ones are loud and triumphant, perfect for the braggadocio displayed in the verses. Oh, and Locksmith came in at the end for a dope verse too, with a faster flow than Murs to make for a change of pace. The scratches on the hook that spell out the song title are just the icing on the cake - this was easily one of the best songs so far. 

8. Westside Love

Remember that song "Freak These Tales" from the classic Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition? Well, this song appears to be in a similar vein at first, as Murs details many meetings he's had with different girls, and all the hook-ups he's had over the years. This is the subject matter he details in the verses, anyway, but during the chorus he gets to talking to this one chick from the West Coast who he really wants to be with, and I have to say that the chorus is probably my least favourite element of this song, all thanks to the weird electric guitar and vocoder sounds that enter during that portion - it just sounds too cluttered if you ask me. Still, the actual rapping on here was cool, and the overall message of the song was nice too. Murs is good at making love songs, and as long as there aren't any more on here, then this one should stand out as a dope joint. We can hope...

9. Life & Time (feat. Ab-Soul & O.C.)

Another more celebratory cut with an aggressive flavour, and also the song with the two star guests on this album. This song is an interesting meet-up - we have a '90s West Coast MC, a 2000s West Coast MC and a 2010s West Coast MC all teaming up, and all delivering equally fantastic verses. And no, that doesn't reflect badly on Ab-Soul - it just shows how damn good O.C. and Murs do on this thing (well, you can expect Murs to be spitting fire at this stage). Murs' first verse disses modern rappers for being too soft (*cough*Drake*cough*), and he actually spits some dope disses in there - "wouldn't throw a cream puff in a cupcake war" being one that I found funny. Ab-Soul spends his verse bigging himself up, which he does a good job of, and he also says on there that if it wasn't for hip-hop he'd probably lose it - I'm sure I've heard that somewhere before? Anyway, O.C. brings up the rear for a dope verse where he compares the old and new scenes, and he does a good job for how long he'd been in the game by this point. The instrumental on this thing was all kinds of fantastic, and I loved the performances from all three MCs. This is the type of shit I love in hip-hop, man.

10. Reach Hire

I can't lie - that song title is stupid as fuck, and does not give me high hopes for this song. But consider me surprised, as I actually found this to be one of the best joints on the whole album. The chilled-out boom-bap instrumental on this song worked perfectly, with the jazzy elements complementing Murs' flow to a tee, and the actual rapping was dope as a muh'fucker too - this wasn't some cringy anthem telling us to "reach for the stars" like I thought it would be. Instead, Murs spends the tune rapping about his own come up, and his journey from local backpack rapper to one of the most respected underground MCs of all time. I honestly can't imagine anyone not liking this - the song title sucks, but everything about this actual song was great. I was literally just chilling and vibing the whole time to this one. Great song. 

11. Dream On (feat. Dee-1)

Another corny title, but will this one surprise me like the last song? Well, at first, I actually thought I was going to dislike this one, because I've never been the greatest fan of Murs & electric guitar together, but as I got further into this song I realised that it actually worked really well. Despite the aforementioned guitar, the beat was still quite chilled out on here, and I really loved the general vibe of it. What I also really liked was the back and forth between the two MCs, who delivered eight bars each on all of the three verses to make for the dopest structure on this entire record. The rapping here was also really good, as the pair of them talk about their own accomplishments, and the dreams that they still aim to pursue. I was slightly disturbed by the line "And I refuse to be that old, lonely dude at home watching porn, forty plus lurkin' around the college dorms" from the guest here, though - I mean, shouldn't you be repulsed by that idea? Just the way he said it made it seem like it was an alternative to him if he wasn't married. Like, that's a fucking disgusting thing to do, you know? Most lonely men probably aren't lurking around college dorms every night! That line really got to me, but otherwise I enjoyed the guest's performance here. I also loved the hook - "what's a dream without a dreamchaser chasing it?" This was a dope cut. 

12. 316 Ways

Murs brings another song title to heavily reference his big day - the 16th of March, or "3:16" as we are constantly reminded of. This song is bloody aggressive, sort of Murs' version of Tech N9ne's "The Industry Is Punks", as he picks apart the flaws of the mainstream industry in hip-hop music, and disses all the rappers who are going around flaunting their wealth, not knowing that they're bound to be screwed over soon enough. The title refers to the chorus - "316 ways to kill the industry" - a chorus that stands as one of the best on this album, by the way. The instrumental on this one is pretty intense, and incredibly enjoyable, and Murs absolutely rips apart his three verses here - he doesn't name names, but that's probably due to the fact that so many companies and rappers could fall under the banners that he addresses. This was one of the best songs here, for sure. What a track. 

13. Animal Style (prod. Embassy the Hitmaker & Royal P)

You know, I literally only just figured out that this song was not produced by Ski. I always thought it was. Anyway, I remember around the time I first started this Murs-athon, I was on his YouTube channel, and I noticed that this was his most popular video. I checked it out, and to say I was mindblown would be an understatement. This is seriously one of the boldest and at the same time greatest hip-hop songs I have ever heard. It's utterly phenomenal. The production on this song is perfect, with loud drums, strange guitars and wonderful synths coming in at different points in the song to match perfectly with the tale that's being told. The tale itself is also unbelievable, and just gives me goosebumps every single time. I'm not going to give it away right now (even though I kind of did give the story of "67 Cutlass" away, but whatever), but if you haven't, then please listen to this. It will seriously give you a new view on life. This shit is fucking incredible. 

Wow... I'm honestly stunned at how good this album was. I actually enjoyed every single song on here, which, judging by its general reception and how much I enjoyed the last project in Murs' catalogue, I was not expecting at all. But it wasn't just that I enjoyed every song - the overall cohesiveness and feel of this album was something to be marvelled at. The production and rapping throughout this album was very diverse, and consistently a point of interest for me. The beats on here ranged from celebratory, chilled out, slightly aggressive, to even tear-jerking on "Animal Style" - the fact that it was the same producer behind all but one of these tracks is incredible to me, as the vibes on this album were pretty diverse, more so than on Murs' work with 9th Wonder up to this point. I actually liked pretty much every beat on here, and it was the same for the features. There were no dodgy sung hooks on here - instead, every feature was a dope MC who bought something to the table to help with Murs' vision. Ab-Soul and O.C. both shone as I hoped they would, but I was also pleasantly surprised by Locksmith and Dee-1, both of whom killed it too. The only feature who I wasn't huge on was Tabi Bonney, but even he had a decent performance, even if it wasn't as good as the other performances on here. And then we come to the host of proceedings, Murs. The rapping on this album is bloody fantastic. By this point, Murs has found a flow and stuck with it, so if you want to give a criticism then let the general flow not changing up much be that. But when it comes to Murs' humour, storytelling and subject matter, everything gets the green light. Not only did I like the break-up tracks, songs dissing whack MCs and songs about following your dreams, but I also loved the more abstract storytelling songs on here too - "67 Cutlass" and "Animal Style" were two of my absolute favourites. This was quite easily my favourite Murs album since Murray's Revenge, and if he follows down this road of intriguing and diverse subject matter teamed with dope production, then things can only continue to be great from here. This album was extraordinary, and I'm very excited to get into more listens of this. I ain't been this excited about a Murs album in a while - what a project!

Expectations: Exceeded

Best Track: "Animal Style"

Worst Track: "Hip Hop & Love", but really I even enjoyed that one.

Catch up on the rest of the Murs-athon here.

Image taken from Album Of the Year.

Common - Be

In 2002, Lonnie "Common" Lynn released one of the most experimental and forward-thinking albums in hip-hop history up to that point, Electric Circus, and being that he did this right after he had put out what is often regarded to be his best LP, Like Water For Chocolate, a lot of fans took it as a blow to the bollocks, and received the record with about as much positivity as is to be found in a bite of stale wholemeal bread - everyone hated it. Not that this hatred was deserved, mind you, as the record was actually a really stellar piece of work that rarely ever crossed the line from "experimental" into "ridiculous", and when it did, it was at the very end, so you could always just turn the thing off after "I Am Music" anyway. Unfortunately, a lot of fans didn't take it this way back in '02, instead being appalled by Common's new direction and choosing to shun him completely. This record didn't sell too well, and after its release Common left his deal with MCA, which must've been a blow. However, as he stated on the bonus DVD of the album I'm covering today, it was his breakup with Erykah Badu that really got to him the most - he hit rock bottom, and was forced to climb his way back up the stepladder in search of happiness once again. 

In 2004, a humble and kind gentleman by the name of Kanye West was prepping to release his debut studio album The College Dropout, and this pleasant chap also happened to be from Chicago, where Common hails from, of course. Ye had already invited such conscious backpackers as Talib Kweli and Mos Def on the record, and so of course he jumped at the chance to have the man behind "The Light" and "I Used To Love H.E.R." on his album, and allowed mr. Sense to jump on "Get 'Em High" for an absolutely wonderful verse that a lot of fans noticed as the potential beginning of a comeback for Common. Common himself was finally in a new circle of people he liked, and he was really ready to start making music again. The man signed a deal with West's G.O.O.D. Music label and Geffen Records, and began to record a new album, an effort that was released on May of 2005. Common's 6th studio album, Be.

Be, in a similar fashion to a lot of Common's albums up to this point, was largely produced by one single act - in this case it was Kanye West, who produced 9 out of the 11 songs presented here, with frequent collaborator J Dilla showing up for the other two songs to make sure the Like Water For Chocolate junkies (I'm sure they're out there) had something to chomp up too. But yes, this was largely produced by a man whom Common had never actually worked with on his solo records before, and as such it was to be expected that Common would be switching up his style yet again - perhaps to something more soulful and modern, in comparison with the jazzier feel of Like Water For Chocolate, or the more hardcore feel of some of his '90s records. And another facet that stood out here was the length - this thing was just 11 tracks long, and unlike Electric Circus that was only 13 songs yet still 70 minutes, this one was actually only just over 40 minutes. That's pretty short, but hey - Common was a veteran by this point. He can do what the hell he likes!

Perhaps it was the fact that Common was already a legend of the game who had made his mark on the genre in countless ways that made this record so well-received. This was a rapper well past the usual peak MCing age, making what many believed to be one of, if not the best hip-hop record of the 2000s decade. An album filled with countless classic compositions, and phenomenally insightful verses, and iconic songs, one that almost every hip-hop fan thinks of when they hear the word "common" in any setting (well, I do anyway). Hell, the album barely even had any features - the only guest MC is Kanye, who provides additional vocals on a few cuts as well as his proper verse, but aside from him the features are limited to singers (Bilal, John Legend, John Mayer) and The Last Poets, who popped up on one of the singles here. The majority of the vocals on here are covered by Common himself, with little in the way of others contributing, especially when it comes down to the verses. The atmosphere and direction the album took was largely down to Lonnie himself. 

And I think it's testament to just how fantastic Common is that I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. 

1. Be (Intro) (prod. Kanye West)

Flipping through the credits, you'll notice that this song has its keyboard work credited to James Poyser - clearly, Common hasn't let his Soulquarians connections completely escape him. Quite the contrary (also, J Dilla pops up later on the album for production, so me bringing that up was unnecessary, but whatever). You'll probably drop the booklet in awe during this song anyway, so the credits don't matter - all that matters is that this song is literally one of the best ever created by human hands. This is, in my opinion, equal with that on DMX's It's Dark and Hell is Hot for the title of "best song labelled "intro" in hip-hop history", and I could just lean towards this one. The song starts with slow and highly intriguing bass that I remember vividly lead me to believe I might have put the wrong CD in, only for the seemingly random bass hits to turn into an actual bassline, which is then joined by some heavenly synths, and finally a whole-ass soulful ensemble of instruments. You hear this build-up and think there's no way this could make itself any more extraordinary, and then Common's verse starts, and it's quite possibly the best he ever did, which is quite a fucking enormous feat at that. The verse on here discusses spirituality, the struggle of the black man, Common's relationship with family, and it all ends off with one final statement that caps off this utterly astonishing piece of poetry - "the present is a gift, and I just wanna be". If this isn't the perfect way to open up an album, then I don't know what the motherfuck is. This shit is crazy, duke!!

2. The Corner (feat. The Last Poets) (prod. Kanye West)

Kanye West provides not only one of his grittiest beats ever, but also one of his grittiest hooks to help Common settle perfectly into that more aggressive atmosphere he perfected on Resurrection and parts of One Day It'll All Make Sense, but never really returned to, at least until now. The instrumental on this thing is nice as an apple pie, with the hard drums intertwining with the chipmunk soul samples to make for one of my favourite Kanye contributions of all time, which is no easy feat. The instrumental also fits Common like a glove, and he actually steps his lyrical game up a notch for this one by providing some of the dopest rhyme schemes and instances of wordplay seen during his lengthy career. Bars such as "got cousins with flows, hope they open some doors, so we can cop clothes and roll in a Rolls. Now I roll in a Olds, with windows that don’t roll" are commonplace (get it?) on this song, and the lyricism presented on here is easily some of the best on this record. Common's actual content doesn't take a battering in favour of this newfound lyrical skill, though - instead, it's as entertaining as always, with Com speaking on life in the Chicago streets and his observations of the hood in his hometown - he speaks on the positives and negatives, and like with the last song, he comes to a conclusion at the end, stating that the "action is affirmative" at the end of this. The Last Poets' inclusion on here also works really well to make for something more spiritual in keeping with the themes of the first song. This shit is incredible. 

I also checked out the remix to this song with Mos Def and Scarface, and considering the line-up, that shit should've been a lot better.

3. GO! (prod. Kanye West)

If I was to give one criticism of this album, it's that a lot of the features don't get credited as actual features, but rather "additional vocalists". Sure, John Mayer only says one word here, but said word is quite pivotal to this song, no? Anyhow, this was one of the singles for this record, and is probably the most radio-centric song on the album, but make no mistake, that's not a bad thing - quite the contrary. The instrumental from Kanye on here is hella smooth, and I also love the hook, which consists of Mayer singing the titular word while Kanye then echos it in a way that makes the song feel old-school as hell - this is obviously a good thing. As for Common, he gets freaky on this one, detailing his sexual adventures with a woman, and while this isn't the most invigorating content, you've got to give it to him for being diverse - this sounds pretty much nothing like the last song. And yet somehow, it all fits. Common's opening line "she was a bad, uhh" is pretty hilarious, and he echoes this humour frequently throughout his two verses - "freaky like the daughter of a pastor" being a personal favourite. Yes, the hook's a little repetitive and the verses don't have the most intriguing content, but this song still works really well, and is one of my favourite "big" singles from Com.

4. Faithful (prod. Kanye West)

An interesting track thematically, as Common spits two verses that don't appear to be very related, but admittedly do tie into the overall theme of the song - that's being faithful to your lover. During the first verse, as Common explicitly states during the first few lines, we hear Common question God's gender (sounds interesting, I know...), asking himself if it's a her, and if he would treat God differently if this were the case. Yes, it sounds like uninteresting trite, but Common approaches it in a pretty intriguing way, with some of his lines such as "wouldn't be ashamed to bring her part of my check" and "couldn't be jealous 'cause other brothers worship her" actually making you really think - could the macho attitude of the rapper be followed through if this were the case? This verse is good, but I prefer the second, as Common tells the story of a man who gets caught up in his own lust, and very nearly has sex with his wife's best friend, only to realise the severity of such an act, and head back to his wife before doing anything rash. This verse is really powerful, and another verse after that would have been much appreciated - oh well. This song is still dope as hell, and I haven't even mentioned the beat, sample, and sung outro from John Legend and Bilal. These factors all being so fantastic and me neglecting to mention them for so long just goes to show how fantastic Common really is. 

5. Testify (prod. Kanye West)

This was the first Common song I ever heard (I picked the vinyl up because I was curious), and so perhaps it's for that reason that I enjoy the song more than most - and yes, I see the issue with the rather intrusive sample, but for me I don't actually mind that too much - it gives the record an intense and dark feel that contrasts with the soulful wonder of the previous two songs. The main reason for enjoying this one, however, is Common's verses, of which there are four, presumably to make up for the fact that there were only two on both of the previous songs. This isn't the first piece of storytelling on the record, but the difference here is that Com dedicates the whole song to it - a tragic tale of a woman who's husband is about to be arrested for a crime he didn't commit, a woman who is forced to testify in court for this man who is surely to spend the rest of his life in prison. The story is pretty intriguing, but it's the final few lines that make this one of my favourite tales of the hip-hop genre. "A spin artist, she bought her face up laughing. That's when the prosecutor realised what happened, all that speaking her mind, testifying and crying, when this bitch did the crime!! The queenpin".  Yup, it was the wife who committed the crime all along. This song is fantastic, and even if I am alone in this take, I actually really enjoy this instrumental. Dope storytelling song. 

6. Love is... (prod. DILLA)

For some reason, there's no capital letter on the "is" on this title anywhere in this album art - no idea why that might be. Anyway, this song is the first of two on the album to not be produced by Kanye "there are a lot of things I love about Hitler" West (I don't exactly know why people have forgotten about that, but whatever), but instead the legendary J Dilla, who cooks up one of his most beautifully soulful instrumentals ever for this conceptual track that easily stands as one of the best on the whole record. On this song, Common discusses how love was an idea always shunned in the hood, and how the young men living in the ghetto were informed by their superiors that love wasn't to be practiced in their areas. Common discusses how it's only when they're too old to feel it properly anymore that they can truly realise that love is a wonderful thing, and how he on the other hand will try to practice it consistently, and he hopes others will follow. The lyrical content here is really nice, and with lines such as "some say that I'm a dreamer 'cause I talk about it often, seen the hardest nigga soften wit' his homie in a coffin", it's hard not to love what Common is doing. On top of that, the hook is catchy as hell too. This is a wonderful song. 

7. Chi-City (prod. Kanye West)

Ye is back, and for by far the most braggadocios song on this album that is a dedication to the two men's hometown of Chicago - Kanye even pops up for a bit of a hook here, which is nice of him. The instrumental on this one is the most celebratory since the intro, and while it's not necessarily quite on that level of phenomenal, it's still pretty bloody incredible by itself nonetheless. On this one, Common delivers two verses (grr) that are two of my favourites on the whole damned LP - I mean, the amount of quotable lines on here is just crazy. Let me just give a rundown of some of the best: 

"I wonder if these whack niggas realize they whack, and they the reason that my people say they tired of rap"

"I'm raw, hustlers get your baking soda"

"I slap a nigga like you, and tell him "Rick James bitch!""

"So many raps about rims, surprised niggas ain't become tires"

"I tell 'em fuck 'em like I do the police"

Hell, the only line on here that doesn't hit quite the way it wants to is the "Chicago-in'" one, but that one still incites a laugh, even if not necessarily for entirely the right reasons. Meanwhile, the hook is dope, as we get scratched vocals from Kanye and Common that are straight scratched in and not from any previous song - although the "from the city of wind" at the end is taken from his single "Car Horn", I believe. And, man is Kanye's harmonising at the end dope as hell. This is one of the best tracks here, or at least until you realise every song so far has been perfect. Jesus, man.

8. The Food (Live) (prod. Kanye West)

Interestingly, instead of the studio version of the song that was pushed as a single prior to this project's release, Common and Kanye decide that the live version of the song performed on Dave Chappelle's show would fit better, and I'd like to say that I wholly agree. This song would be fantastic on its own, but the live energy that this version has just enhances it that much more, to the point where I don't even mind at all that it's censored (not that the censoring on this particular song does much to cover up the words). This is one of the more upbeat songs on the record, with Kanye bringing the energy on the hook, and Common coming through with verses that discuss similar topics to those on "The Corner" - that's the negative goings on in the ghettoes of Chicago, but also the positives that can be gained from it. This one also has a slightly dodgy line, albeit one that works a lot better than "Chicago-ing" - that being "on the block, white is selling like Eminem". It kinda gets a point across, but not really well enough to be effective. Still, most of the lines on this song work like a German motorcar, and I just love the energy displayed in this live take. More than one live song would be overkill, but I think they nailed it with this - more rappers should follow in these footsteps if you ask me. 

9. Real People (prod. Kanye West)

The first time that Common would lend this title to one of his songs, but not the last - this was also the name of a song he did with Ice Cube for the Barbershop: The Next Cut soundtrack in 2016. Interesting stuff, and I actually haven't listened to that song yet, so if it's worth checking out right away then please let me know. Anyway, this song features some of the more jazzy production on the album, and when I say "jazzy", I really mean jazzy, as that is exactly the word you'll surely think of when this track comes on. The instrumental on this thing is fantastic, and Common uses it to discuss exactly what the title conveys - "real people", and the factors that he thinks defines them. He also discusses such things as police racism in the song, and all goes very well on here up until the shorter third verse. "I see black men walking with white women on their arms, I be mad at 'em, as if I know they mums". I mean, what the fuck?? That's literally racist. That's not even a question, that is simply, entirely racist. I mean, I kinda see what he's going for with a racial purity thing, but honestly I'm surprised he doesn't catch more flack for that. And I don't even want to think about what people would say if the races were reversed. I seriously cannot get past that line, but if you are capable of ignoring it, then this still comes across as a fantastic track. It's just, that line... That shit is fucked up, man.

10. They Say (feat. Kanye West & John Legend) (prod. Kanye West)

The most stacked feature list on this album, at least until you realise that both of these guys have contributed backing vocals on multiple tracks prior to this. Still, let's not be picky, as that would take away from my overall message here - this is yet another flawless, fantastic song. After a little bit of drumming that sounds intriguing, the song comes straight into play, with John Legend's hook being incredibly catchy - the harmonising in the background is dope as hell, and the melody is nice too. And man is that beat a good one. Probably one of the best here. Common provides two verses on here, with Kanye West popping up for his first actual rapping performance on the LP in the middle, and as you might expect it's not as good as Common's verses, but it's still pretty dope nonetheless. On this song, Common speaks on the times in-between Electric Circus and this record, and it is the first time on the whole album where he actually brings up his odd musical and stylistic direction around that time, and how this was effectively his comeback album. "They say the crochet pants and the sweater was whack, heard "The Corner", now they say that nigga's back" is one of the best lines on here in my opinion. Kanye's verse is alright, as he spends most of it bragging about how good of a producer he is and squeaking in a way that resembles some of Common's debut album, but really it's Common's verses and the production that make this the classic it is. Banger right here. 

11. It's Your World (Part 1 & 2) (feat. "The Kids") (prod. DILLA, co-prod. James Poyser & Karriem Riggins)

Quite possibly the best song on the whole entire record ends things off here, with J Dilla providing easily one of his most potent and powerful instrumentals, with assistance from James Poyser and Karriem Riggins, both of whom had or would have strong relationships with the host here. On this cut, Common spits two rather long verses, the first of which details his own growing up, and his life as a youngster, with references to his dropping out of college, and his life growing up in the hood and how that effected him. Then, during the second verse, he tells a story of a prostitute who's had a very difficult time growing up, and has ambitions to be a singer - and even if she doesn't realise these dreams by the end of the verse, she still has that ambition - I guess the overall message is that you can do whatever you want to in life, as long as you have visions and motivation. Common's two verses are very touching, but I've also got to give it to Dilla with this beat, easily one of the best on this album. This instrumental is so rich and soulful that anyone who says they don't like it is simply lying to you - it's that good. And this song doesn't just end once the verses are up - we then get an extended outro where a bunch of kids explain what they want to be when they grow up, and then we get the usual outro speech from Common's father. It's crazy how every single one of his speeches somehow works, but they always do - even if the underlying music (which is utterly fantastic here) often helps. This speech makes me tear up every time, man. Such a beautiful way to end the album, and such a fantastic song overall. Wow. 

It's over... or is it? After a minute of silence, my CD plays a hidden song that I do believe most pressings don't have. Interesting...

- So Cool (prod. Sa-Ra)

Over a groovy instrumental made all the more catchy by a hook that sounds like multiple singers contributed to it, Common spits a couple 8 bar verses about a woman that he wants to put into one of his... music videos, I guess? I mean, the verses on here don't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I know that they're sexual, so that's something. Anyway, there really isn't a whole lot to say here. The beat and hook are dope, but these are by far and away the weakest verses on the whole LP - they sound like something Universal Mind Control era Common may have decided to spit. Still, I'm not going to pretend I don't like this - because I really, really do.

Common's Be is not only my personal favourite record from the man, but it is quite possibly objectively the best hip-hop release of all time. Like, it's seriously unbelievable just how absolutely fantastic this record is. Aside from one line on the song "Real People", there isn't a single moment of this thing that I even slightly dislike - not the hook on "GO!", not the dodgy "Chicago-ing" bar on "Chi-City", not even the slightly intrusive sample on "Testify". Even moments like these that would seem like they might be problematic on paper just somehow work perfectly within the context of this album. Everything here is unequivocally, undisputedly, infallibly brilliant, and there's very little to really say in these final paragraphs, as the idea of "criticism" doesn't really come into play here. The production, largely provided by Kanye West with a bit of J Dilla, is fantastic. Every beat here sounds rich and like days of work was put into it, which was not exactly par for the course on 2000s rap albums, and each and every one brings wonderful percussion, sampling, and elements of soul to the table that make the project sound more like something that could have come out in the '90s or the 2010s, not the shallow landscape of the mid to late 2000s. The production on this thing is some of the best you'll hear to come from the genre, and it doesn't stop there. The features (and yes, there are a few even if most don't gain credit for it) are incredibly potent, with all of them managing to sing or rap in the best way possible to enhance the song, but without ever taking the spotlight off of the main attraction. My favourite guest appearance might have to be Lonnie "Pops" Lynn, honestly, but all of them from the many Kanye West showings to the singing of John Legend and Bilal do what they were put there to do, and do it brilliantly. And as for the head of this album, Common, he really does bring his all on here. The man's voice never sounded so good, as he truly plays the wise man of the ghetto on here, and the themes discussed are some of the most intriguing of his whole career, from the double-crossing wife story on "Testify" to the braggadocio on "Chi-City". There is a reason I know pretty much this whole album off by heart - it's because Common's verses are just that fantastic. And that intro, man... that's one of the greatest moments on any album ever. If you have not blessed yourself with a copy of this album yet, then you really should do that right now. Literally. This thing is essential, and might well be the living embodiment of a perfect album. And it's not due to nostalgia that I say this - I knew this album was perfect from when I very first heard it, and all I would listen to was this record. It's fantastic. It's the perfect album. I absolutely love this project. 

Best Tracks: Applicable

Worst Tracks: Not Applicable

Catch up on other reviews of the legendary Common over here!

Tech N9ne - Celcius

Sigh... let's get this over with.

As Tech N9ne was finishing up the recording and mastering for his first fully independent release Absolute Power, he got a harrowing call from his old label Mizery Entertainment, and specifically the head of said label Dyamund Shields. Shields felt that he hadn't made the money from Tech N9ne that he deserved, and seeing Tech touring everywhere and hearing his singles on the radio, he assumed (wrongly) that he was making a lot of money, and not giving back to the people that put him on. Tech wasn't ready to start issues with a man who was actually quite powerful in his hometown KC, and so him and Travis O'Guin (remember, that's the other owner of Strange Music) agreed to let Mizery and MidWestSide release a Tech N9ne record consisting of previously unreleased music, albeit months before Absolute Power's set date of unleashing. 

So you can imagine their surprise when Celcius (yes, they spelt it like that) was put out one day before Tech was to release his proper independent debut. The nerve of these guys! Not only was the release date absurd, but so was the album cover - yes, Tech's stare was similarly creepy to how it would be on some of his own self-released albums (see Killer, Sickology 101, Something Else), but on the other hand we had a blue cover to go against Tech's known affiliation with the Bloods, as well as enough bling to last the average Italian Gangster a few years, and a rather nice Jaguar XK (what a beauty) that still, mind you, went against the Tech N9ne way of thinking. Imagine Tech N9ne signed with Cash Money or No Limit - this is the album cover you would probably see. And as well as this, the project contained plenty of collaborations with Don Juan, which went completely against the Absolute Power disstrack on him "Yada, Yada, Yada". If this disc had done better than Tech's proper new album, then it probably would have proved that disstrack completely wrong. 

Well, I suppose it's a good thing that it didn't.

The songs on this project consisted of leftovers from Tech's shelved Be Warned album that Qwest had refused to release, songs recorded for the unfinished Tech x Don Juan collaborative disc advertised in the booklet of The Worst, and a few songs that didn't feature Tech at all, but instead served to promote some of the newest signees to the MidWestSide label. It should be noted that we never heard much from these guys again, and this probably has something to do with Celcius selling about one copy before MidWestSide gave up on trying to milk Tech, as by this point in time he wasn't really appealing to their gangsta rap demographic anyway. And so Celcius remains a relic of the past, a simple reminder of Tech's soured relationship with his previous label, and a place where you'll find a decent amount of the Be Warned sessions that most likely would have otherwise remained unreleased. 

Most Tech N9ne fans consider this easily one of the weakest projects in his catalogue, but the question is: is that because of the spiteful and unpleasant way in which it was released, or because of an actual lack of quality of music on the record? Well, you may already know the answer to that, but if ya don't, then here it is!

1. He Wanna Be Paid (prod. Don Juan)

After an accapella shout out to his hometown that appears to be lifted directly from "It's Alive" (and was probably tacked on by the label to make the song seem more like an intro), a strangely familiar instrumental starts up - the first beat we hear here is that of "Mitch Bade", only done with a more electronic feel - thankfully, this only lasts for the intro. The actual beat on this song is really stellar, with the strange sound effects making for something rather creative - it also uses the bassline from E-40's classic "Captain Save a Hoe", with the hook interpolating that heavily too. Oh, and parts of the "Planet Rock 2K (Down South Mix)" beat are incorporated here too, just because why not. Tech uses his time on this song to diss Vell Bakardy for various reasons, from faking sales to lack of radio play to constantly taking shots at Tech for apparently no reason, to biting the sounds of Chubb Rock and DMX - quite an amount of stuff, then, but still, the lyrics don't come across as too savage on here when compared with what Tech did on "Yada, Yada, Yada" - then again, that one was a whole lot more personal. There are quite a few dope lines on here though, with just two standing out as randomly vulgar - "bout to make yo eyes pop out when I whip my cock out" and "when you die and all ya piss, cum, and feces drop out" - not too many by Tech standards. Also, there's no way anyone doesn't like that "somethin' wrong with his medulla oblongata" line. This is a pretty dope song, even if it isn't a massively impactful diss. 

2. Call Girlz (feat. Don Juan) (prod. Don Juan)

You know, on first listen I was pretty surprised that I enjoyed that opening song so much - yes, it had a clear dope theme and was meant as a diss track, so that made it immediately entertaining. But on top of that, it's sonically really dope too, and Tech drops bars all over the thing. So imagine my disappointment when we get to the second song and it's... this crap. Over a fairly smooth instrumental that I'm not entirely against, Tech and Juan rap about their encounters with women around the country they surely don't care about as anything other than sexual objects, and the results are predictably miserable. It's funny, as the intro and outro portray Tech as caring about the woman, which only make the real motives revealed in the song's content that much more unpleasant - the hook is painful too. Tech does refer to himself as "the raggedy-mouth nappy head friend grim cummer" on here though, so that was funny, but otherwise this is annoying and unpleasant. There's also an echoey outro skit that doesn't appear to make much sense in context, but whatever - who said any rap skit had to make sense. 

3. Be Warned (prod. Don Juan)

By far the shortest, most popular, and probably best song on the whole album. Tech takes the haunting instrumentation of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" (commonly known as the theme from The Exorcist), and rips the shit up for almost exactly two minutes before the song cuts out fairly abruptly. The track starts with some lines that were also spit in his song "Why? Tech N9ne" from The Worst, and even though that song was technically released before, it's safe to assume that this one was recorded prior, as the title leads one to believe it would have appeared on Tech's 1996 record Be Warned, which, as I think I've stated before, was shelved by Qwest Records on account of it being too demonic. Well, that does make sense considering this song - "Be Warned" is creepy as hell, and not just because of the instrumental - Tech uses his trademark strange delivery and backmasked vocals all to enhance the horrifying experience. This is another utter banger - this album did get off to a pretty good start, didn't it?

4. Boss Doggs (feat. Big Scoob, Bakarrii & Nitty) (prod. Don Juan)

A team up with three of the 57th Street Rogue Dog Villains that we actually heard a snippet of on the "Wake Up Call" skit off of Anghellic, only back then it was unreleased. It wasn't until this project was released in full that it saw the light of day, and it's safe to say therefore that this was recorded in or prior to 2001 - possibly for a 57 RDV album? That's an interesting dilemma - it's just a shame that the song kinda sucks. Having a flow that imitates the repetitive beat run exactly the same throughout the entire song across all four MC's verses is simply ridiculous, especially when the song is almost 5 minutes in length. "All my lyrics is simple and clear" is also a terrible bragging point for a rapper - I mean, can't you at least try to be a little complex, Scoob? This track could have been good, but unfortunately it's repetitiveness makes it completely redundant. Fuck Short Nitty, by the way. 

5. Sprung (feat. Don Juan, Paul Law & Nachia Cayson) (prod. Don Juan)

Hilariously mislabelled "Spring" on streaming services - what a cock up! This song was originally to be titled "The Bianc Zone", but for some reason they changed it to the name of a film from the late '90s that no-one remembers,  but did feature a Jay-Z song on the soundtrack ("Who You Wit" - not "Who You Wit II" but the different original version). This song right here looks to be another dope cut from the instrumental, which has a nice bassline, dope sound effects and smooth synths, but unfortunately none of the vocalists manage to do anything right. Tech and Juan spend the entire time talking about having sex, and being generally misogynistic, meanwhile saying absolutely nothing of note the entire time, and the chorus also doesn't sound right at all - I mean, why the fuck did they get a woman in to say "she play with our dicks while we play with our guns"?? One interesting facet of this hook was that it was later interpolated for Krizz Kaliko's outro bridge on Tech's smash hit "Caribou Lou" - otherwise, it's best to forget this one existed. 

6. All I Want (feat. Nachia Cayson) (prod. Don Juan)

This cut right here apparently aims to completely juxtapose what Tech was going for on the last song - this is a straight up love rap, aimed towards a chick that Tech wants to be with, but unfortunately she's into the men with loads of money, which at the time he didn't have. Aside from the very strange lines at the beginning - "and the fact I'm clever got honeys wanting to do whatever - like sit on my face" - this one is quite sweet, and the Nachia Cayson hook sounds interesting (read: sounds like it comes from the mid 1980s), but as a whole I've got to say that this type of content probably wasn't what anyone going into this album was hoping for. Maybe I'd like this more on a different album, but in here it seems very out of place and random. 

7. Nasty Girl (feat. L.V., Don Juan, Rock Money & Nachia Cayson) (prod. Don Juan)

Wow, Nichia Cayson (or Nachia? The credits on these early Tech albums juxtapose ridiculously) is getting a lot of work on this album. I'm not even entirely sure who does which verse on here, but I believe the order goes L.V., Don Juan and then Rock Money, with Tech coming in last obviously - whether that's actually the case I don't even know, though. Juan and Tech N9ne both begin their verses with melodic deliveries, which is annoying, but not as annoying as pretty much everything else about this. The chorus is horrible, the beat is completely unrelated to the subject matter and singing, and this subject matter itself is simply shameful. It's straight up misogyny. There's honestly no defending this. If Tech had put this on an album himself, my respect would legitimately go down of him. This is actually one of the most horrible songs in existence. What the fuck is this, man?

[*goes off and cries for a few minutes*]

Right, let's keep going.

8. Pop That Thang (performed by Macc James) (prod. Macc James)

Funnily enough, I did actually quit the review for a sec after that last song, but not simply because "Nasty Girl" was so horrible. No, I actually went off to assemble a shelving unit, and did a piss poor job of it too, which was unfortunate. Anyway, it's now the morning of the day after that, so everything before was written yesterday - just thought I'd point that out. On this joint, Macc James, presumably an artist who signed to MidWestSide after Tech N9ne made his departure in 2000, delivers a self-produced strip club anthem where our host is nowhere to be found - odd, considering Nina's affinity for vulgar sex songs. Upon first listen, this was the first song I actually liked somewhat since "Be Warned", which is interesting, as nowadays I simply can't stand this misogynistic bullshit. The track is similar to "Sprung" in that it has a dope beat, but this guy can't figure out for the life of him how to make it work. The lyrics on here are vulgar and unpleasant, and my God is the hook repetitive. The only salvageable things here are the beat and the club-ready flow - otherwise you can give this a miss (not that the Tech fans will need telling).

9. Shoot Tha Shit (feat. Don Juan & Big Bear) (prod. Don Juan)

Yes, that is the Big Bear of the ridiculous "Doin' Thangs" album cover that everybody knows about. Who knew he was affiliated with Tech N9ne? Unfortunately, this song sucks, and if it wasn't for the fact that it has content mildly more interesting than the sex songs from earlier, it would actually be the worst joint on the whole record (well, worst song with Tech present). The instrumental on this thing gets old after about 10 seconds, so just imagine a whole 5 minutes 15 seconds with it, and already you've got a recipe for disaster. As you might be able to tell from the title, this one is aggressive and confrontational, and features a bit of that gangsta rap that Tech would occasionally experiment with back in the day - unfortunately, it's so hollow that the most interesting part of the song is a repetitive bridge where Tech repeats variations on "making every bitch get hot when I shoot this shit" - hell, at least the flow's cool. The flow on Tech's actual opening verse is fucking horrible. And at least he has an interesting delivery. Don Juan and Big Bear sound like their verses were recorded straight from their beds the morning after a night of drinking and taking LSD, which, considering how these guys would have lived at the time, isn't too far fetched of an idea. Yeah, I really hate this.

10. Ride Wit Me (performed by Nitty, Big Scoob, Bakarrii & Severe) (prod. Don Juan)

57th Street Rogue Dog Villains are back once again, and oddly Txx Will is absent from proceedings here too. I wonder where he was at? Let's hope at the name change clinic - that stage name is stupid as fuck. Anyway, this is yet another cut to completely eschew a verse from Tech Nina, but perhaps that's for the best, as this is the best song in a long time by far, which is largely thanks to this funky Don Juan instrumental that is easily one of the best beats on here - the drums and the electronic synths all come together to make for something much more exciting than what we have seen a lot on these previous songs. Severe's chorus is bloody horrific, especially when delivered with no proper instrumental at the beginning of the song, but thankfully the three MCs don't make a monkey of their efforts, as all three of their verses are decent in my opinion, if occasionally incomprehensible and falling flat - I mean, what sort of brag is "catch me running an illegal business, driving a beige and blue Hummer"? Pretty dope overall.

11. Blue Streak (feat. Bridgett) (prod. Don Juan)

According to this booklet, these lyrics are by Don Juan as well as Tech - what, are the label insinuating ghostwriting? Have they heard Don Juan's rapping? On this one, Tech raps from the perspective of an illegal jewellery dealer who steals most of his product, and in the end he gets arrested and sent to prison for the rest of his life, which he still manages to find the positive side in. Or at least that's what I got from it. It's a strange and rather unique concept, and it's certainly a whole lot better than the "I'm going to kill you"/"I'm going to vigorously describe myself having sex" lyrical content we've found on this album so far - and to make things even better, the hook is catchy and isn't over the top at all, and the instrumental from Don Juan, while not astonishing, keeps up the energy throughout the song with some nice sound effects in there too. But really it's Tech's intriguing lyrical content that saves this one - truly a dope-ass track from his early career. Oh, and the rhyme schemes at the beginning of the first verse? Probably the dopest moment on this whole LP.

12. We Dem Boyz (performed by Jok3r) (prod. Jok3r)

This shit is so fucking horrible I don't even want to waste my valuable time writing about it. Hell, I'd rather listen to the Wiz Khalifa song of the same name. 

13. Mizery (feat. Macc James) (prod. Jok3r)

I guess Tech did know Macc James, then, as he shouts him out on the hook of this song, and further than that, I'll propose that this song was recorded for the Be Warned album way back in '96 - it certainly has a very creepy, demonic atmosphere, which is exactly what that album was supposed to sound like. The shout out also proves that this wasn't mashed together from unreleased Tech vocals. Also, there's a reference to the "turn of the century" in the outro here, which leads me to believe that this song was recorded before that pivotal moment. Just a few things I noticed that I thought were worth bringing to the metaphorical table. Anyway, this song is pretty great, as Jok3r manages to provide a far far better instrumental than whatever the fuck he cooked up on "We Dem Boyz", which utilises dark pianos and drums that make for one of the most haunting instrumentals on this whole thing. Also, Tech's verse is really stellar, with his backmasked vocals sounding great, and his murderous lyrics being pretty convincing alongside his disturbing vocal delivery - there's a diss to Vell Bakardy in there too. I even like his singing on the hook. Unfortunately, this song isn't entirely successful because Tech decided to get a rapper as un-scary as Macc James on here, who slurs most of his vocals on this thing into oblivion, rendering his verse pretty much unlistenable. This is still one of the best songs here, but that's probably more of a bad thing than a good. 

14. Celcius (feat. Don Juan & Nachia Cayson) (prod. Don Juan)

The second song in a row to have that horrorcore type of sound, which again puts this up as a contender for a song intended for the Be Warned album. On this one, Tech speaks on his ability and uniqueness in the industry, and how he's such a different MC to everyone else, and yet still will prevail in the end. The chorus was actually used for a line on Tech's "Get Blowed" - "I am cold as ice" - and the flow used at the end of the final verse here was also later used on Tech's classic "It's Alive" (I think he had used it even before that on "I Can Get Grim", though). Aside from these interesting facets, this song is still pretty great - Don Juan's instrumental is engaging and intense, and Tech's lyrical content actually aged well considering how much he went on to thrive in our chosen genre. I really don't like the "freeze me with your deity" section of the hook, but otherwise, this is a pretty good way to end a pretty bloody bad album. 

You know, the first three songs lull you into a false sense of security on here - yes, "Call Girlz" is ass, but "He Wanna Be Paid" and "Be Warned" are both actually great Tech songs that appear either side of it - it's easy to think "Call Girlz" is just to be a one off. Unfortunately, after this the album goes to complete shit - "Boss Doggs" and "Sprung" both have their moments but in general bore me to death, and after that the album gets really fucking awful up until "Ride Wit Me", and even then that song isn't that great - it just looks so good because of the shit you've just had to wade through - kind of like finding a cheese sandwich and cup of water in the middle of the desert - in most other settings it would be merely alright, but here it appears like a gift from the Gods. The album really picks up towards the end (forgetting "We Dem Boyz" exists), but for the most part this thing is terrible. The lyrical content from both Tech and his guests sways between disgusting and boring, but rarely does it ever actually become interesting, the hooks are uniformly miserable even on a lot of the better songs, and the production is often boring and does nothing to make it stand out. There's very little worth to be found on Celcius, but since it is Tech N9ne we're talking about, there is a tiny bit, which is what the chart below is for. But really, unless you're an enormous Tech fan, this shit ain't worth checking. It's boring, vulgar, and has barely any highlights in comparison with the miserable moments. Still, at least we now know why Tech didn't want this released, and we also know why Absolute Power overshadowed it like an elephant would a small moth - because it's so, so, so much better. 

The Good (it's all relative, remember): "He Wanna Be Paid", "Be Warned", "Ride Wit Me", "Blue Streak", "Mizery", "Celcius"

The Mediocre: "Boss Doggs", "Sprung", "All I Want"

The Fucking Horrible: "Call Girlz", "Nasty Girl", "Pop That Thang", "Shoot Tha Shit", "We Dem Boyz"

Other Tech write-ups to be discovered over here!