The rapping by Jay catches my attention more than much of his other work, but again, I'm not a big fan of his beat selection. Most just lack that something extra, and many have a poppy undertone to them I don't like. Lyrically, there is very little substance also as it's mostly brag rap. While there are some atrocious songs like 'Things That U Do', this is probably a notch better than his previous Vol. album thanks to a few more beats that I like, but for me this is an album for Jay fans who love his style and wanna hear him rap well as opposed to hearing great production. Best Tracks: So Ghetto, Snoopy Track, There's Been a Murder, Come and Get Me

This had been in my to listen to list for a long time. In that time I had no idea that for much of the album I'd be hearing a guy on helium rapping. While the high vocals aren't as bad as they sound like they'd be, I'd bet that if this were by some no name artist and not the well renowned Madlib that it wouldn't have the rep it does. Furthermore, you have to ask yourself, would this be better without the high voice? Surely the answer would be yes. After all that, it won't be a surprise to hear me say that the production is the best part of this. A number of the song intros are great, and then the vocals kick in.... However, not all are brilliant 'Discipline 99 Pt. 0', 'Goodmorning Sunshine' and 'Jazz Cats Pt. 1' among others are all pretty boring and the yelling on 'Put a Curse on You' is extremely annoying. Also, on 'Return of the Loop Digga' Madlib disses producers for reusing the same sample, but he does on MHB's using one from the well known Ho Happy Jackie by AZ, not to mention Nas from Illmatic among others I've noticed. That's not really loop diggin'... Overall the vocals are a strange decision and I don't hear the originality and more importantly the greatness in enough of the beats that others speak of. 2.5-3 / 5. Best Tracks: Microphone Mathematics, Low Class Conspiracy, MHBs, Boom Music, Axe Puzzles, Discipline 99 Pt. 1

Not a bad album from Fabo who is yet to make anything great from start to finish. The album does have a lot of featuring artists but nothing I've seen from Fabolous tells me he can do one on his own with any real success. He spits some catchy bars at times, but he doesn't have anything special either lyrically or in his delivery so his songs generally need to feature another voice. Overall, if you don't mind R&B hooks and a bit of pop rap enough of this album works. I love the hard 'Gangsta Don't Play' with Junior Reid also which helps the album get its three outta five. Best Tracks: Change Up, Make Me Better, Gangsta Don't Play, Brooklyn

Fabolous has always had some some good tracks, so let's have look at his fifth album, Loso's Way, to see what we can find. The 'The Way Intro' is just "so so in case you ain't no so." The beat is monotonous and I feel something could have been added to it. The next two tracks I'm diggin. Jeremih on 'My Time' reminds me of R. Kelly which is a good thing and I like the line before the hook in 'I'mma Do Me' - "My attitude is celibate, I don't give a f***." It's not the work of Shakespeare, but it's a good lead up to the chorus. 'Feel Like I'm Back'' is enjoyable to some degree but the slow drawn out vocals in the chorus brings it down. 'Everything, Everyday, Everywhere' is boring and probably the worst track from the disc. 'There He Go' is the next track that does a lil' bit for me but is still nothing to write home about and the "There He Go" in the track reminds me of 'Dare He Go' from Drug Abuse by Dice - just thought I'd mention that. Following that is the pop rap track 'The Fabolous Life' which is one of the better ones on this disc. Then 'Making' Love' is okay, but not near Ne-Yo's and Fabo's very good collab 'Make Me Better' from Fabolous' last album, which featured some good tracks. 'Pachanga' ain't bad featuring a bit of a soulful beat, like I've said in many reviews recently though, this is another track let down by the chorus. The verses are good though backed by a nice beat. 'Stay' finally mixes up the subject matter and talks about being a father and the responsibilities that go with it. It's far from brilliant but mixes it up. Then the album finishes well with the rap crime story, 'I Miss My Love', which will grow on you every time you play it. To sum up, this contains four to five songs that I'd be happy to continue to hear which all but earn this the 2/5 I have given it at the moment, but the many below average tracks make Loso's Way an overall disappointing album from Fabolous. Like with 'From Nothin' to Somethin'', more often than not the radio friendly rap tracks are done better than the 'real rap'. Best Tracks: My Time, I'mma Do Me, The Fabolous Life, I Miss My Love.

This album dates back to 2007 and with it finally being released in 2013, it makes it Eve's first album in eleven years! In that time there have been singles like 'Tambourine' and even a track list that has since been completely changed. Since her last album Eve has partnered up with a billionaire, so she probably doesn't need to work anymore at all. Looking at the features and producers on that old track list suggests that it would have been more of a straight hip hop album than this album has turned out to be: 1 – Ain’t No Stoppin’ Me (Dre. Dre) 2 – All Night Long (Neptunes) 3 – Cash Flow feat. T.I. (Swizz Beatz) 4 – Fantasy feat. Robin Thicke (Neptunes) 5 – Get That Money (Dr. Dre) 6 – Guess Who’s Single (Neptunes) 7 – Here I Am feat. Mary J Blige (Swizz Beatz) 8 – Give It To You feat. Sean Paul (Swizz Beatz) 9 – Step Back (feat. Timbaland) (Timbaland) 10 – Tambourine feat. Swizz Beatz (Swizz Beatz) 11 – Turn Me On feat. Sizzla (Just Blaze) 12 – We Belong Together feat. Timbaland (Timbaland) 13 Hey Girl feat. Eminem (Neptunes)[/spoiler]) The opener is a dope hardcore hip hop track and I really wish there were a few more of them. The almost eerie "Eve" chants sound great. The following dub-step influenced 'She Bad Bad' goes okay, but it's a couple of notches worse than the previous song. There are times I enjoy this song a lot during the verses, but the chorus is lacklustre. The next three songs are poppy with 'Keep Me From You' going for some EDM themes. Next, 'Wanna Be' returns to some harder stuff, and unlike a chorus ruining a song which is more frequently the case in rap, here it's the verses that are weak. Then Snoop takes off his rasta beanie and contributes on the chorus of 'Mama in the Kitchen'. It's an okay fun track. The next two songs are a mixture of hardcore beats with pop choruses. 'Forgive Me' has a Caribbean vibe, it's different, not much I'd play again in a hurry. 'Never Gone' is the first song in ten that I get thorough enjoyment of out. The glorious Christie Michelle hits the chorus and the beat is better than what has come before. To conclude then there's a remix of the second song. As a rapper Eve is pretty good to listen to, which is why she is one of the more respected female rappers to have done it. She also comes across as a likeable person unlike the most popular female rapper going around these days. Lyrically a fair chunk of this is brag rap, while other songs show she has mellowed since earlier in her career, however, her lyrics are quite simple at times throughout the album. Overall, I can generally like pop rap, but some are too poppy like 'Make It Out This Town' and most of the production doesn't do enough for me, in saying that, there is a slightly different/varied sound present than what we normally hear throughout a hip hop album. The songs closer toward general hip hop like 'Mama in the Kitchen' and 'She Bad Bad' don't have good enough production either to really stand out. This is basically how I felt when I heard the snippets. Best Tracks: EVE, Never Gone