While listening to this, like many others who have reviewed the album, aspects of it definitely feel like an imitation of Kanye's 808s. So given I didn't even enjoy that much, and this is a step down from that, it is no surprise that I don't like this album. The largest flaw with this is Cudi's voice. Vocally I don't find him interesting to listen to at all, he is just pretty damn boring to be honest and comes off as quite whiny. Some of the beats are likewise, uninteresting. However, some of the production leaves me thinking that I would rather this as an instrumental album, as it has some interesting themes and samples amongst it, and it wouldn't make bad background music. Even the best tracks below are nowhere near great and after a few listens I can't find one song that I think I would search for to play again. If you really enjoyed '808's and Heartbreaks' give this a try, but otherwise it's definitely not an essential hip hop release. Cool album art though. Best Tracks: Soundtrack 2 My Life, Heart of a Lion, Day 'n' Nite, Sky Might Fall, Cudi Zone, Hyyerr

This album was the first, second or third rap album I ever heard/owned, so that being the case, I may hold this up a bit high, but I still enjoy it to this day. As with much of my early interest in hip hop, I got this due to hearing 'Smash Sumthin' on a PSX demo of some wrestling game. I was very surprised when I first ventured to this site that it is thought of so poorly. For me though, it's very funky, largely thanks to the legendary Erick Sermon and Da Mascot, and Redman is as fun on this as anything I've heard from him. The energy on this album from start to finish is great. I'm usually a hater of skits on albums also, but these were fairly humorous, feeling like something from a sketch show. I think Redman went for a similar kind of project with his next followup, but it doesn't flow as well. Extremely consistent for me, just needed another couple of great tracks to get a higher rating. Best Tracks: Lick a Shot, Real Niggaz, Enjoy da Ride, J.U.M.P., Soopaman Luva 5 (Part I), Smash Sumthin'

It is tough for rappers to reinvent themselves as they get older, writing about original topics and continuing to engage their audience. You could count the vets from the early-mid 90s still releasing albums with the same anticipation and general interest as the new cats on one hand. Jay joins the likes of Snoop, maybe Nas, some of the Wu (probably stretching it already) and rappers like Eminem who began closer to the new millennium. There aren't many, with rap as a whole so far making for a short life of high fame. With this album, for a good half of it at least, Jay does not do this, making it void of passion/presence on the mic, or originality. And while I'm all for this small trend we've seen from the likes of Kanye and Jay of releasing albums out of nowhere, I'm strongly against albums being rushed, which aspects seem to have been for the recently released Yeezus, and sound like they were for this, with The-Dream mentioning that “Jay-Z finished most of this in two weeks.” Best moments on MCHG: 'Jay Z Blue', as the lyrics are meaningful with Jay rapping about fatherhood. It actually feels like Jay put some thought into this song. 'Somewhere in America', largely because of the pianos in the production is a standout. It could've been a lot better though with better lyrics and rapping. It's a similar case with the following 'Crown'. Disregarding Jay using basketball players as similes for the millionth time over his career, 'Nickles and Dimes' is also more introspective and deeper than most of what comes before. I don't mind 'Part II' either. B helps elevate it who is on the song for a lot of it and it is a grower. The opener 'Holy Grail' has its moments as well, but it feels more than one minute too long. JT being on a song that's too long? There's a first time for everything I guess... Worst moments on MCHG: 'La Familiar', where Jay takes subliminal shots at Lil Wayne, years later after Wayne dissed him on 'I'm Good'. When you take this long to respond to a diss it's a failure and it mustn't have dug that deep. Lyrically, it also just feels like it was written in three minutes. Also on the diss, with Wayne being a laughing stock for years, Jay could go so much harder. 'Holy Grail' - Jay has another dig at Hammer losing his cash. Leave him alone Jay. 'Picasso Baby' - I like the beat change up that takes it back to the feel of some earlier Jay beats, but the lyrics are boring as they are on the following 'Tom Ford'. Kanye does this bragging better, because he puts more emotion into his vocals, is more outlandish and just comes across as more of a character - (insert croissant line here). Out of all of the tracks Jay could've asked Nas to impart some of his wisdom on, it's BBC, with Nasir rapping about clothing 'n' shit. Finally, does anyone else find Frank Ocean a bit whiny at times? Maybe it's just me... To compare the pretentiously ill-fitting titled Magna Carter_Holly Grail to Jay's last solo album, there was definitely more I got out of the early ventures of BP3 than this. There are no really bad songs here that BP3 has, which are largely due to some choruses being horrendous on BP3 in the last half of the album, but there also aren't the 'DOA's, 'Empire State of Minds' or 'On to the Next Ones' that are high moments on BP3 in my opinion. I've seen the production being praised, and after hearing the commercial/trailer for the album I was a bit hype for this album, as most sounded good, but to be kind, I'm not hearing much that blows me away. Not a great phone, I mean CD, full of material. Best Tracks: Somewhere in America, Crown, Part II, Jay Z Blue, Nickles and Dimes

The overall rating of this in some places suggests this is better than his debut but I can't agree with that. I think the raw production really suited his story telling horrocore type of lyrics that were on his debut. This is a tad more polished and most of it still works quite well but I don't think this has the standouts and rawness that makes Prone to Bad Dreams such a joy. Best Tracks: One Way Out, Until It Hit Home, My Mind Went Blank

Like others, I cant give this a higher rating because of its unoriginality, however, Fashawn's lyrics are more original and his own than other reviewers would have you think. With the beats, you know what are getting - some of the best of '94 that still sound great these days, and Fashawn is a good rapper so overall it's a good listen if you are a fan of Illmatic, even if it is weird not hearing Nas over the classic beats.