Obie's debut is a better-rounded album, containing some excellent tunes that beat anything on this, but overall there is enough to enjoy here. The weakest portion of the album is easily the middle where it falls away with tracks like 'Jamaican Girl', 'Kill Me a Mutha' and 'Out of State' failing to excite. However, from 'All of My Life' through to the completion of the disc, most work well. 3-3.5/5.
Best Tracks: Violent, Cry Now, All of My Life, Ghetto, There They Go, Mama, Everywhere I Go
When you acquire a Flo Rida album, after hearing a single or anything from his debut, surely you know what to expect. He is a rapper with a fast flow (sometimes incomprehensible) who mostly raps over radio/club friendly beats. If you completely hate pop rap why would you even bother with this? For me despite currently having a higher rating, this is a worse album than his debut 'Mail on Sunday'. This has more average songs and less that catches my attention. There are a couple of tunes to enjoy on this that are indicated below but there isn't anything too impressive. It's pretty simple, if you hate anything you've heard from Flo Rida this will be a waste of an hour while you listen to it, if you enjoy some of what he does check this out.
Best Tracks: Jump, Gotta Get It (Dancer), R.O.O.T.S.
The further I get into this mixtape, the lower the rating becomes. While Rick can choose a beat, at the same time too many sound the god damn same, if not with various beats on this album, with production Rick has been provided with in the past. Being an average rapper with limited subject matter, he can't afford to do that or it just gets boring. Speaking of average rappers, someone quite the opposite, Nas, provides some nice bars on 'Triple Beam Dreams' making it one of the more complete songs here. Overall, I could play most of these tracks sporadically and bounce (the production on 'MMG Untouchable' is amazingly bangin'), but in playing the whole mixtape, by the halfway way mark I start to feel bored. He didn't need to make this 80 minutes. Ross always has a few bangin' tracks though, so I'm still looking forward to the upcoming album.
Best Tracks: Holy Ghost, MMG Untouchable, Triple Beam Dreams, Keys to the Crib, Stay Schemin
This starts off fairly well with 'Back Again' and 'In This World' being particular early favourites with nice beats and Talib spitting great as he does. The poppier 'Midnight Hour' at track seven is definitely one of the worst tracks on the album and doesn't quite fit in with what the rest of the album does. And from there, while not quite getting back to the heights of the earlier mentioned tracks, there is still some good stuff to listen to. I'm generally more of a beat guy, but since giving this album a few good spins, it's more Talib, and some guests later on, who really help this album to be enjoyable in the second half, with the beats dropping off a touch in quality the longer the album goes on.
While not containing anything ground-breaking, there is some really good stuff - some memorable lines, the Jay-Z sample used in 'In This World' is great, and the Michael Jackson "leave me alone" is memorable as well on 'In The Red'. Overall, it gets a commendable three and a half because there is some good stuff early and even with it dropping off and not featuring anything brilliant in the latter stages, it's still not a bad listen. Listening to this though reminded me that I must check out the prequel to this and the one or two releases I've missed from Talib's discography.
Best Tracks: Back Again, Strangers, In This World, Got Work, In the Red, Ballad of the Black Gold, Just Begun
While not having a great ratio of great material, I've always anticipated Flip's new releases for some reason. For me he has become a more consistent artist recently putting out some good collab stuff, and if there is a lot of mediocre material on an album, there is generally a quality track or two. This mixtape/album is fairly consistent. There is nothing to bad, the production is decent-good on a few tracks and as usual you have Flip's laid back flow with some nice wordplay with a dash of humour. I'd recommended this one to fans of Flip Gates. The title track is a standout.
Best Tracks: Respect Me, I Got 2 Be, Real Life, Let Me Do Me, Supafly (Hands Up High), Stop Lyin'