Everyone knows 'Regulate', it is probably a track that got many people into hip hop, and is as much Nate's song as it is Warren G's. Apart from not having quite as big an influence on the genre, the same can be said for the following song. From there though, apart from 'This D.J.', (the three singles from this album were appropriately chosen) that is another classic, the album never reaches great heights. Another issue is that although he produced the whole thing, vocally I don't think Warren put his stamp on it. There are a lot of features and 'Super Soul Sis' doesn't feature Warren at all. Nevertheless, while I have been torn between 3.5 and 4 more so than with many other albums, the three classics and that the quality is never too low, means that this '94 release just scrapes in for four outta five. Best Tracks: Regulate, Do You See, This D.J.

It may be a hard market to sell to, but I just want to say that mid-nineteen hundreds music needs be mixed with modern day music more often. Personally I love 'Blue Eyes Meets Biggie' which is a mix of Sinatra and Biggie material and in my opinion works almost perfectly. This album, while not being as consistent, contains some good stuff that helps extend my belief. It tries to mix the great, charming voice of Nat with beats of many different styles that maintain a certain oldness to 'em from his era, but also use some of today's hip hop themes among other genres. The best tracks are great,. Largely 'Lush Life' and 'More and More of Your Amour'. Others particularly in the first half of the album (which feels more like something from his era) like 'Straighten Up and Fly Right', Day in Day Out, 'Brazilian Love Song', 'Hit That Jive, Jack' are also worth checking out. The tracks with the rap features are okay. 'The Game of Love' works better than 'Walkin' My Baby Back Home' where the rap which is at the end of the song doesn't really fit in. I'm a fan of Nas but to be honest 'The Game of Love' probably could have done without it also, but it works fairly well anyway. As the album moves on, you get more skippable tracks. The second half musically moves further away from the traditional 1950s jazz and doesn't work as well. The Marley brother's track 'Calypso Blues' and 'El Choclo' are okay... and then 'Pick Up' doesn't even feel like a song, most of it is just Nat and a chick talking to each other trading lines. After that, 'Anytime Anyday Anywhere' isn't bad with its soulful jazzy beat and then 'Nature Boy' finishes the album off with an Indie rock type of lo-fi beat behind it which doesn't do it for me. Overall, it's a mix of good and okay, as it is fairly broad from a genre point of view a touch like this year's 'The Spirit of Apollo', it's not surprising that it's fairly hard to like everything on offer. On the whole there is nothing too bad and I'd be happy to listen to this whole thing again even if there are only two to three really enjoyable tracks. Best Tracks: Lush Life, Brazilian Love Song, More and More of Your Amour, The Game of Love.

At the stage of writing this I have heard 3 Redman albums, (Whut-Thee Album, Muddy Waters and Malpratice) and after hearing them, this is a very disappointing album. By comparison, the production is widely not up to scratch apart from a few songs, and most tracks will get you skipping them midway through. In saying that though, some of the beats are good but they just don't make you want it for 4 minutes... They get a bit monotonous. It's still better than a lot of other releases, but I'm pretty sure anyone who has heard the best of Redman before will be disappointed with this LP. It's is just too inconsistent and doesn't really feel gel to feel like an album. VERY GOOD Put It Down Soopaman Luva 6 OKAY-GOOD Bak Inda Buildin How U Like Dat Walk In Gutta Rite Now Mr. Ice Cream Man (skit) Merry Jane Gilla House Check Soopaman Luva 6 ½ The rest of the tracks are pretty skippable. He needs Erick Sermon back for the production for most of the album on Muddy Waters 2 or whatever his next album is.

MY MAN HAS FINALLY MADE SOMETHING AGAIN THAT I GET THOROUGH ENJOYMENT FROM I've basically been off Kanye since 'Graduation'. '808s' is him autotuning for a whole album... No thanks. I won't go into it, but I've never gotten the obsession with 'Fantasy'. I've written a review explaining why. Minus a couple of songs, 'Yeezus' ain't my cup of tea. 'Pablo' sounds like a rushed mish-mash of ideas with few great moments. 'Ye' has nothing noteworthy. 'JESUS IS KING' has some of the most boring music Kanye has ever produced. Donda is better though. This is such an easy listen. It isn't experimental like 'Yeezus' at all. It's just good trap production with some unique sounds including gospel themes. A lot of the beats bump, Kanye is entertaining ("We off the grid, grid, grid, grid, grid"), but doesn't step over the line like he did with lyrics from the aforementioned album, and while there are many featuring verses, and Kanye goes missing at times, most work well. 'Off the Grid' is hard a nails, but would be better if Kanye just spat, particularly instead of Playboi Carti. The main issue with this is that it's 27 TRACKS long with the last four songs just being slightly different versions of what we have already heard. For someone who has had quality control with most of his projects, it's surprising that he's decided to release a near 2-hour album. Another more minor issue is the loooong speech by Larry Hoover Jr. As I play the album I have to hit skip every time that starts. He should've just put it on 'Jesus Lord pt 2' to keep pt 1 snappy. The only songs I dislike here are the annoying opener, with Syleena Johnson repeating "Donda" in different ways for 50 seconds, but that's just an intro, 'Remote Control' and Pop Smoke's 'Lord I Need You'. 'Jail' is a touch boring too with Jay-Z's verse nearly putting me to sleep. As I opened with, after not feeling Kanye for a while, this is the most I've gotten out of a project from him for ages. 'Come to Life' is so beautiful. Best Tracks: Off the Grid, Praise God, Ok Ok, Junya, Believe What I Say, Heaven and Hell, Jesus Lord, Come to Life, All the 'pt 2s' of songs I've listed.

Most of these songs sound fairly modern and with some of the political references to Bush, Clinton and Obama they seem to be from between 'Icons' and 'Anthem Inc' and not anything from their heyday. A couple have been released before though. 'Respect' was on 'Naughty by Nature Featuring Garden State Greats Mixtape', and 'Wifey Material', is from 2000, and was also on a recently release unofficial release. I love NBN, they are my favourite group, but nothing here touches their best work and you won't be wondering why these didn't make any of their albums. 'Cold World' sounds a bit...unstructured, for want of a better word. Treach yelling over the hook doesn't fit. 'What Now' continues with more conscious rap. Anthony Hamilton blesses the hook. Again, I don't enjoy Treach as much as I usually do. The delivery of the verse is a bit underwhelming. 'The Projects' sounds more '90s, but also low quality. Maybe the mixing wasn't done... 'Respect' is the hardest song and one of my favourites. Vinnie and the others speak on their love and respect for hip hop. 'Hard Times' continues with more of a hardcore hip hop feel and is another strong song. Naughty and Treach were great at making pop rap, and 'Breezy' is another example of that. The chill beat suits Treach more here and he flows more naturally over his three verses. As mentioned, 'Wifey Material' is one I've heard before. It's decent pop rap. Best Track: Respect, Hard Times, Breezy