Marley Marl returns to produce most of this after the success that was LL's previous album, 'Mama Said Knock You Out', but a larger number of other producers lend a hand. DJ Bobcat, who co-produced LL's best song, 'Mama Said Knock You Out', produces four songs and Andrew Zenable, Chris Forte and QD3 also add their creativity, so as was the trend in hip hop, artists were getting more people on their production team. LL was criticised when this dropped for jumping on the gangster rap trend by acting harder, but he had hardcore hip hop on his previous albums, so I think that was unfair. As all of his albums had leading up to this, the first song is a banger, but 'How I'm Comin'' is better than what he's had before. If you're a fan of '80s/really early '90s beats, then you may disagree, but for me, despite LL being a great MC, his earlier albums don't have great enough production to be considered great albums. With this dropping at a time when beats were in many ways the best they have ever been, it gives this album more of a chance to be great. As mentioned, the opener here is fire, as is the following 'Buckin' Em Down'. LL follows on from 'Around the Way Girl' to continue to make good pop rap with 'Stand by Your Man'. Then, while every song isn't amazing, the quality is consistently at a high level and it is before LL started going more and more towards pop rap. I have to give a shout out to the closing track, 'Crossroads' that is quite striking and monumental. There are a couple of slow moments though with 'A Little Somethin'' and 'Straight From Queens' dragging on. A lot of of this project is just LL spiting hard rhymes, over mostly hard beats, and as vocally LL is one of my favs on the mic, this is my pick from his discography. Some of the production, particularly on 'Buckin' Em Down', reminds me of early Naughty by Nature, who are another favourite, lead by the inventive and ahead of his time, DJ KayGee. While I'm mentioning KayGee, 'Funkadelic Relic' is a dope jazz rap influenced song and LL's flow on it reminds me of Treach from Naughty by Nature. Come to think of it, LL would have sounded great over Naughty production. It's a shame they never collaborated. Beats: ★★★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★☆ Hooks: ★★★★ Best Tracks: How I'm Comin', Buckin' Em Down, Pink Cookies, Funkadelic Relic, All We Got Left Is the Beat, Crossroads

Don't Call It a Comeback! Firstly, how did they not choose the title track to kick this album off? It seems odd to me. If I had a dollar for every time I played that song, I'd be a rich man. 'Around the Way Girl' is LL's first attempt at a pop rap song that really works. While his first couple of albums in particular sound quite dated, 'Around the Way Girl' almost sounds like it could drop today. Upon revisiting this for the first time in many years, after the first 3 songs I was thinking that I would definitely increase my rating from 3.5/5, and I am, but the album drops off a bit from there. 'Mr. Good Bar' is good, but it lacks a memorable hook, that all the previous songs have. After the title track, aside from maybe the remix of 'Jingling Baby', that maintains its contagious hook, there is nothing to add to LL's best of. In saying that, they are all worthy listens, and unlike his previous albums, there aren't any dull moments. I'm fairly sure 'Farmers Blvd (Our Anthem)' is the first we see of a rap feature on an LL album, and Big Money Grip and Bomb don't let LL down. 'Milky Cereal' is entertaining, featuring cereal metaphors about a different girl he meets in each verse. Almost every song is a 3.5/5 or higher. It features some of his greatest songs, and it continued to be a step up from his first two albums. Many of the hooks throughout the album are great too, and in some cases help elevate the songs to be worthy of a replay from their verses. Beats: ★★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★☆ Hooks: ★★★★ Best Tracks: The Boomin' System, Around the Way Girl, Eat Em Up L Chill, Mama Said Knock You Out, Jingling Baby (Remixed but Still Jingling)

1. Pressure (Intro) ★★★★☆ The opener, with Pac vocal samples and Ro borrowing Pac's lyrics from the legendary 'Can't C Me', as well as other famous rap songs is dope. Someone needs to make a project full of Pac samples and homages. On 'Never Fold' he actually says, "I come up with my own shit, there's not a lot of sampling", but he actually has borrowed lots of concepts from 'Ring My Bell', 'Many Men' to Biggie's 'Fucking You Tonight' to name a few. 2. Man Hold Up ★★★★ This is dope rapping with minimal singing. 3. Where My Niggas At ★★★ This is the first to get a video for it. Far from my favourite, but a decent track about loyalty. 4. Roll 1 Deep ★★☆ How many tracks can Ro write about being 1 deep? Ehh. The chorus is alright, but the production isn't great to make the verses that worthwhile. 5. That’s Me ★★★☆ 6. Never Fold ★★★ 7. Fall Bacc ★★★ 8. Heaven 4 a Gangsta ★★★☆ The best song since 'Man Hold Up'. A little harder, angrier and darker. 9. Lord Knows ★★★★ Lots of singing, but this is more catchy, with the featuring vocals from Lolita Monreaux helping the hook stand out. Better production too. 10. Playa ★★☆ 11. Waitin on the Checc ★★★ 12. Shin Dig ★★★ 13. On My Necc ★★★☆ Another catchy hook ★★★☆ 14. MurdererxLanlawd ★★★★ As with 'Lord Knows', the featured vocals are dope and make the song stand out along with its vibey feel. 15. Everywhere I Go ★★★☆ 16. Live It Up ★★★☆ 17. H-Town Legend ★★★☆ 18. Gone Eat ★★★★ 19. Actin’ Funny ★★★ Here he addresses people like me who miss his spitting, but damn, I'd love more hard quick rapping from him, because there are few who do it better. 20. 5th ★★★☆ This album is similar to Z-Ro's past few albums in a number of ways. They've been over an hour making them take some time to digest, similar by way of quality, the singing/rapping style Ro has done for quite some time now-more so than his straight-up spitting, and without enough amazing moments. As with his past few projects as well, this has grown on me after being underwhelmed early on, but there is nothing-little here that fans will be putting in a best of Z-Ro compilation. It starts and ends fairly well, but there are too many skippable songs in between. Given Ro has been putting out material consistently for almost 25 years, he'd be much better off releasing a 12 track album, rather than a 20 one, given the content isn't breaking any new ground. And it has its moments, and I'm not sure who produced this, but the production definitely won't wow the listener. Still a 3-3.5/5 because there are enough good moments, and as always Z-Ro is more enjoyable to listen to here than most rappers, but here's to more quality control on his next. Beats: ★★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★★☆ Hooks: ★★★☆ Best Tracks: Pressure (Intro), Man Hold Up, Heaven 4 a Gangsta, Lord Knows, On My Necc, MurdererxLanlawd, Gone Eat, 5th

I pressed play on this album straight after just listening to 'Radio', and this is so much better from the first 10 seconds. There is so much in the production compared to all of 'Radio'. Hip hop production moved along fast. Those were my thoughts after the opener, but unfortunately the follow up, 'Kanday' sounds more like something from LL's debut. It's still decent with a catchy hook of sorts but the production sounds regressive from 'I'm Bad'. From there, it continues to be a bit of a let down after the dope opener. None of the production matches it for me. Lyrically, 'My Rhyme Ain't Done' reminds me of Cube's 'A Gangsta's Fairytale' and is the first real boring moment though and the rock-rap 'Go Cut Creator Go' isn't my thing either. '.357 Break It on Down' steps up the production and LL raps impressively making it another one to keep from the album. The closer, before the short skit, 'The Do Wop', sounds fresh as well and is another favourite. Overall, this is definitely a step up from his debut. There is much more variety, from the hard first track, the soft 'I Need Love', the do wop, 'The Do Wop', making it a much better listen. Subjectively, it still suffers from my lack of love for '80s hip hop production, but most of this is palatable to good. LL's rapping and word play catches my attention more too. Beats: ★★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★ Hooks: ★★★ Best Tracks: I'm Bad, .357 Break It on Down, I Need Love, The Do Wop

I'm starting to revisit and review every LL album in chronological order. I had this at 2/5 originally and I've dropped it down half a star, as it's even less thrilling than I remembered. 'I Can't Live Without My Radio' should've ended at about 2:30. It goes on twice as long as it needs to with its boring beat. The next, 'You Can't Dance', uses some of the same instrumentation, and again, doesn't maintain my interest. 'Dear Yvette' has a laughable hook. 'I Can Give You More' changes up the production a little more than the same-sounding first three songs but still gets tedious. I think I'll end commenting on every song. 'Rock the Bells' is the best thing here. It doesn't drag on like the opener and there is a little more in the production. Albums like this are the reason why I'm apprehensive about checking out mid '80s hip hop. LL is entertaining at times, but the beats are just too primitive and similar from song to song. I could produce these songs in about 10 minutes. A few times as well, the chorus is just the beat riding. Objectively this may have been good for its time, but I'm rating this subjectively, and it does almost nothing for me. Beats: ★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★☆ Hooks: ★☆ Best Tracks: I Can Give You More, Rock the Bells