Daz is back and has used the film of the same name (minus the incorrect spelling) to name his album as Jay-Z did with American Gangster. It's no surprise given his stage name is taken after the infamous gangster John Dillinger. It's fair to say though that this has been done with much less fanfare. While most of Daz's albums haven't been classics, I've enjoyed most of his stuff. He has an underrated flow and each album generally has some bangin' beats. Lyrically, I don't think Public Enemiez has anything to do with the film and a lot of it is your fairly general gangsta lyrics particularly the chick tracks toward the end of the album. However, he does talk a touch more about his life than past material including on the tracks '2nd to None', 'Tell Me What You Got' & 'Life Stagez', and a couple of other tracks are about gang violence like 'Tear Drops' and 'In My Neighbourhood'. Overall, it's an improvement on his last two albums with Daz using more quality control for a shorter, less filler containing album which makes for an album you can pretty much play the whole way through. If you like past Daz stuff, and beats with a bit of a west coast vibe, try this. Best Tracks: You Let Me Down, Tell Me What You Got, Life Stagez, 2nd To None, Tear Drops, My #1 Girl (beat reminds me of sumthang that I can't recall at the moment...), Public Enemiez

Prince's main rival in the pop world was no doubt Michael Jackson back in the day and with an album like this, you can see why. For consistency, you could probably rate it above Thriller. While the 'Synth-iness' of it does sound a tad dated unlike Michael's older records, it's still brilliant. For me 'Darling Nikki' is the only skippable one of the lot with the other eight being some of the best tracks you'll hear to come out of the '80s. Best Tracks: Let's Go Crazy, The Beautiful Ones, Computer Blue, When Doves Cry, I Would Die 4 U, Baby I'm a Star, Purple Rain

There is normally one more talented member of a group who goes solo, in this case, it's Omarion from B2K. While the second half is mostly average R&B slow jamz, the first half of this album is almost all hit or miss, going from very good tunes like the title track, to weak uneventful R&B like 'I'm Tryna'. There are some high moments that have kept me entertained as I have gone back to them for years, but it's way too inconsistent. Best Tracks: O, Growing Pains, Never Gonna Let You Go.

Being the hip hop head that I am, having ignored some of Common's albums for years hasn't felt right, so recently I've been checking out what I've missed. Although deserving of praise as a lyricist, overall it is fair to say I find some of his albums to be a tad one-paced or a lil' inconsistent. However, I'm feeling a bit more variation and jazz/funk in the beats on this than say his previous album for example, and more has popped out without forced repeated listens. The guests all work well, particularly Lauryn and Erykah on the hooks of their respective tracks (albeit reprising famous lyrics), and Canibus is a welcome surprise also, who isn't featured on many high profile artists albums. This isn't 17 songs of classic material, but very little here isn't of high quality. Best Tracks: Real Nigga Quotes, Food for Funk, G.O.D., All Night Long, Reminding Me (Of Sef)

This just gets a touch boring. As nice as Aaliyah's voice was, it's a bit one-paced and little stands out to me. The great Treach adds some much-needed energy on 'A Girl Like You', the change-up on 'Choosey Lover' is good and others are enjoyable, but there's nothing I'll be rushing back to. Her debut is her best album largely thanks to the genius of R. Kelly. 2.5-3 / 5.