There are some big names on this album, from Timbaland, Fabolous, Kay Gee, DJ Quik, Nate Dogg to Warren G, but the album doesn't live up to the reputation of those names. There are some good songs, and they're driven by the features, such as Nate Dogg on 'Wake Up', as opposed to Shade Sheist standing out as a rapper and bringing something fresh to the game. He gets completely outshined on many of the songs. It doesn't help that you can barely hear him over the beat at times. 'BMF' feels like an instrumental except Shade whispers some lyrics in the background. It's frustrating to listen to as it's almost incomprehensible. While I wouldn't recommend that you drop everything to check this one out, if you love Nate Dogg, (and who doesn't?), as he is featured on a handful of songs, it's almost worth checking out for his smooth vocals. The production is smooth as well with some g-funk flavour present on many of the tracks and 'Money Owners' is the only song to skip with Timbaland bringing his electronic style to the album, but I don't dig it. Beats: ★★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★☆ Hooks: ★★★ Best Tracks: Stop... And Think About It, Wake Up, Thug Luv, Where I Wanna Be

This album starts to take off from 'Get High Tonight', that feels more like a song that could've been on Busta Rhymes' debut than most of the production elsewhere. Overall, I don't love the production on many of the tracks. 'Rhymes Galore' and 'Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See' come close to being amazing, but there is nothing that makes me too excited and there are some boring moments. 'So Hardcore' isn't interesting and some of the songs towards the end of the album, like 'The Body Rock', that features a boring Diddy contribution, also doesn't work too well. Particularly at the start of the album, I like how many tracks just kind of blend in from one another. Not enough albums do that. Busta is of course an entertaining rapper, but I've rarely loved his production choices over a whole project, and this is another example of that. It's fairly consistently good, but there is little here that grabs me on a high enough level to think about giving the album a higher rating. A light 3.5/5. Beats: ★★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★ Hooks: ★★★☆ Best Tracks: The Whole World Looking At Me, Get High Tonight, Turn It Up, Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See, We Could Take It Outside, Rhymes Galore, One

My favourite Trae project is the short 'Life N Pain'. Because he raps about similar themes, his projects shouldn't stretch 80 minutes like this does. There are some production elements you don't often hear in hip hop, like the guitars more accustomed to country music, that work really well in songs like 'Asshole by Nature' and there is also some classical strings on 'Had Enough' and 'Don't Fake'. It's all okay with some highlights but it does drag on a touch. A decent 3/5. Beats: ★★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★☆ Hooks: ★★★ Best Tracks: Asshole by Nature, Don't Fake, Stay Out My Way, Till the Day I Drop, Oh No Reloaded, Let Me Live

A decent nine tracks from Flip. Most of the best moments are those with Z-Ro as the feature. There's nothing to love but nothing to dislike either apart from a feature or two like those on 'Stay Prayed Up'. Best Tracks: Ms. Parker, Feel My Pain, Going Jogging

Underrated. This was the first Slick Rick album I heard and having heard all his others since, track for track, based on their reception from the populous, this is surprisingly my favourite. As I have always enjoyed Rick's vocal originality, I guess similarly to BDK's 'Daddy's Home' or LL's '14 Shots to the Dome', this gives me a chance to enjoy Slick over more likeable beats as the Golden Age '94 production works more for me than his other three albums. From the jump, the production is so much better than his previous two albums and what he'd get on his follow up. We've got some catchy hooks here as well that 'The Ruler's Back' didn't have. It's not all sensational, but I enjoy most of this considerably. Another great '94 release. Beats: ★★★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★ Hooks: ★★★☆ Best Tracks: Behind Bars, Sittin' in My Car, A Love That's True Pt. 1/Pt 2, Cuz It's Wrong, Get a Job