I remember hearing 'Jesus Walks' on a music video show one weekend and I was immediate hooked. I also recall spending some time on the net afterwards looking for it to listen to it again. While Kanye didn't/doesn't have the best voice or rapping talent, the church/choir influenced production is brilliant which I've always loved and I ended up purchasing the album. Once past the annoying intro and other skits throughout the album, (my advice to anyone who hasn't heard this album would be to delete the skits out of your playlist), you are mostly left with a mix of thirteen great tracks. The skits criticize college, which is fine, but I don't think they are that engaging for repeated listens. The couple of exceptions, and the tracks I'm not infatuated with are, 'The New Workout Plan' which drags on, and the massive hit 'Slow Jamz' which I never got the great deal with. Another Twista hit, 'DJ Play a Love Song' is a better song. Apart from those, everything is pretty-pretty good. It's one of those albums I've been torn between a 4 and a 4.5 out of 5, and have maybe leaned toward the four at times as Kanye ain't a great rapper, but given the amount of brilliant tracks, which most albums would be happy to contain one of them, it gets a 4.5/5. And they DCFS, some of 'em dyslexic / They favourite 50 Cent song '12 Questions' :) Best Tracks: We Don't Care, Jesus Walks, Never Let Me Down, Two Words, Through the Wire, Family Business

I can't say I feel this album as much as most do. I don't really feel any track a huge amount until 'The Ecology' at track six (which is great) and overall while I like most songs to a certain degree, overall the jazz-rap/boom bap/west coast beats aren't giving me a huge amount of pleasure on the songs that aren't listed below. Best Tracks: The Ecology, Our Way, Samsonite Man, Father, When She Calls

This doesn't do it for me as I expected. I find Doom's rapping unimpressive, like he needs to find the perfect rhyme to every bar and his overall voice... I know other artists rhyme a lot - that's hip hop - but with Doom I just notice it more... Hard to explain... He is extremely overrated as an MC. Production wise also, as with past Doom I've heard I haven't really been the biggest fan of it. I find it raw and with no real colour to a lot of it. Overall the best tracks are alright but the rest of it does little for my ears. Best Tracks: Still Dope, Angelz, Yessir!, Gazzillion Ear

The first three tracks are enjoyable with classic funky Quik beats. Other tracks like 'Whatsha Wan Do', 'Ohh!', 'The Appeal' and 'Fuck Y'all' are okay but nothing really does a huge amount for me. Hopefully the next Dogg Pound album with Kurupt & Daz is an improvement on this disappointing release.

So Meth & Red finally return for a sequel to 'Blackout' from ten years ago. First off I'll say I like this a bit more than their debut. I found 'Blackout' to be overall fairly boring musically and I rated it 2.5/5. Method Man & Redman though are always entertaining to listen too with Meth growing on me all the time and Red was one of the first I discovered when I was getting into the genre and has always been a favourite. I've listened to 'Blackout! 2' a few times and it's one of those I've had differing opinions on with each listen. On the first listen I really enjoyed most of it, the second not so much, the third listen I again enjoyed a fair bit of it and now as I listen to it as I write the review I'm leaning towards not so much. So the rating has differed a couple of times in my head. There is nothing excellent on this album and if there is something I like to some degree there is an average-poor song afterwards which puts it down. There are plenty of okay-good tunes that I will list below but nothing much to play over and over again which makes an album fairly redundant. If I was rating track for track most would get a two or a three out of five for example. To summarise I'm still giving this a 3/5 because there are enough tunes I enjoy but overall there ain't nothing brilliant and some filler. Best Tracks: I'm Dope Nigga, Hey Zulu, City Lights, Mrs. International, Father's Day, Dis Iz 4 All My Smokers.