I generally don't love '80s and really early '90s hip hop production but here it's good enough to help this album earn a good rating. D-Nice has a commanding presence on the microphone and helps to carry some of the weaker beats with many of the topics being brag-rap. It's more consistent than I remember his follow-up, 'To tha Rescue', being but doesn't feature anything as good as the Treach assisted 'Time to Flow'. Best Tracks: Crumbs on the Table, Call Me D-Nice, It's Over, It's All About Me, And You Don't Stop

A fair bit of filler is on this like most if not every T.I. album out there, but I feel this is one of his better albums. The first three tracks are quality and the kind of songs that T.I. should create a whole album of. Good rapping and hard beats. A similar track in 'Every Chance I Get' is later on in the album also. Then you have songs such as 'On Top of the World', 'Live Your Life' and 'My Life Your Entertainment' that I enjoy most of the verses but the weak choruses let them down immensely, particularly the first two mentioned - I'm not a pop-rap hater if the hooks work, but I don't feel these much. Overall, it probably has the most tracks I really enjoy from a T.I. album, but he still lacks consistency when putting an album together. Best Tracks: 56 Bars (Intro), I'm Illy, Ready for Whatever, Every Chance I Get, Swagga Like Us

Like every T.I. album there is some good stuff present, but there is also still too much filler. As usual Kid Cudi is a bore, so the best portion of the album for me is afterwards from 'How Life Changed' to 'Big Picture' - with the Eminem featured 'That’s All She Wrote' being my pick from the disc and much better than the pairs duet on T.I. vs T.I.P. If I remove the bonus tracks or not the second half of the album really fails to excel. 'Castle Walls' is interesting where T.I. continues the minor theme of the album about being rich not being as great as people think it is - but if that is the case then stop rapping about it. Other than that some of the bonus tracks on the deluxe edition ain't bad, and you may have heard a couple before if you checked out T.I.'s Fuck a Mixtape. Although it has been a while since his last album, possibly the personal trouble T.I. is going through meant a slightly poorer album than he could have otherwise produced. Remove 'That’s All She Wrote' and while there are quite a few good tracks on offer there isn't a whole lot to go back to. Best Tracks: How Life Changed, Get Back Up, That’s All She Wrote, No Mercy

Given the high rating this has always had, I've given it many tries, but at the end of the day I basically come away from it with the same thoughts every time. It's an overfilled, too same sounding rap album with only a few memorable songs. Best Tracks: What You Know, I'm Talkin' to You, Why You Wanna, Bankhead

A solid enjoyable album from T.I., pretty much front to back. The only tracks I'm not feeling much at all are 'Ball' with its average beat and another Wayne verse talking about pussy-God he's bad these days. Apparently T.I. had to push for 'Can You Learn' to be on the album and I can understand why. Despite my love for R. Kelly, it's too long and isn't that interesting. 'Cruisin’' is T.I. pretty much singing and it has grown on me a bit, but is forgettable. Some other tracks of note: 'The Introduction' samples Marvin Gaye's 'Trouble Man' and is a quality opener. 'G Season', which was originally meant to feature Jay-Z, follows on and gets harder. Lastly, 'Addresses' is lyrically the hardest hitting track here, with T.I. taking aim at his enemies and has been a topic of conversation in the many promotional interviews T.I. has done. Overall, I don't think T.I. hits some of these beats like he would've in the past and while there are a lot of good songs, there aren't enough if any outstanding ones. 3-3.5. Best Tracks: The Introduction, G Season, Go Get It, Addresses, Hallelujah, Like That