These guys were featured on a number of video games back in the day and that was how I was introduced to them. 'Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX' had a great soundtrack that included 'Great Expectations' and once I heard that I had to hear more so I purchased this album. I'm not going to go on about it too long, it's just a fresh sounding underground album with dope rappers trading bars. If there is one criticism I have it is that apart from Chali 2na they don't sound that different from each other. I've said that many times with hip hop groups.
Beats: ★★★★
Bars: ★★★★☆
Hooks: ★★★☆
Best Tracks: The Influence, Great Expectations, World of Entertainment, Contribution, Swing Set
The only tracks that offer any enjoyment are mentioned below. Overall though, with plenty of average beats, Mike's poor lyrics and ad-libs, it all makes for a very poor album as the rating suggests.
Best Tracks: Drop & Gimme 50, Give Me a Call, Swagger Right, Next to You
Only half of the album has anything to do with X-Mas and these tracks are more of R&Bish/pop rap, and then the remaining tracks are more of what you're used too. Not a bad album, and I probably enjoyed the first X-mas half more so than the rest, but nothing outstanding.
Chapter 4: Labor Pains starts off fairly well with some good tunes mentioned below, but from the 'Interlude' at track seven, every track afterwards struggles to evoke any enjoyment out me. Production wise and from a vocally building up perspective from Syleena, a lot of it is fairly boring. It finishes with an upbeat track in 'Go' after many slow tempo tracks but that also doesn't succeed greatly.
Best Tracks: Labour Pains, Where's the Love, Freedom, Be Me.
Joe has been creating great music for almost 20 years, making him one of the most consistent artists mainstream R&B has had over the last couple of decades and this is another consistent album. However, while there are some quality tracks, particularly at the beginning of the album, I don't think the best are the quality of his previous hits. 'Drink Up' particularly is one of the more dull songs I've heard from Joe. There are still a number of enjoyable moments though making it worth a listen for fans, particularly after not hearing anything new from Joe for over two years.
Best Tracks: Losing, Almost There, Dear Joe, Impossible
