I actually liked most of his previous LP 'Wanted' because I liked the production on it, but these beats ain't as much to my liking here. The harder, straight rap songs don't work as well, with the pop rap being the songs with a greater success rate. There is still some reasonable stuff here though. It's cool to hate Bow Wow but it's not that bad. Best Tracks: Shortie Like Mine, Tell Me, Give It to You, I'mma Flirt

EMPD are one of the best hip hop groups ever and it was great to hear they were reuniting for another album and putting their differences aside. I don't mind this album at all, its enjoyable to listen to, fairly consistent and with its 40 minute duration is quite easy to play from track 1 to 13 like most of their albums. The problem is though, if you've heard past EPMD or Erick Sermon's solo work, you may have felt you've heard it all before. Not bad but it probably won't have a huge amount of replay value due to its similarity with their previous work. Best Tracks: Puttin' Work In, Roc-Da-Spot, Run It, Bac Stabbers, Never Defeat Em, They Tell Me

1 No Church in the Wild (feat. Frank Ocean) ★★★☆ Pretty likable opening beat and verse from Jay, marred by Kanye singing over autotune, and never recovers. 2 Lift Off (feat. Beyoncé) ★★☆ Not feeling this one too much, again ruined more so by Kanye singing. "You can't sing bro!". The worst track here. 3 Niggas in Paris ★★★☆ A hard beat for sure. Not bad, not great. The choir change up that occurs at about three minutes is enjoyable that leads into Otis. 4 Otis (feat. Otis Redding) ★★★ I feel I could've really like this one, but there is a gross overuse of the sample, it's overpowering and becomes annoying. 5 Gotta Have It ★★★ Again the sample in the hook is annoying, otherwise it's a solid tune. 6 New Day ★★★★ The best track of the opening half a dozen. A nice soulful emotional beat. 7 That's My Bitch ★★★★☆ Finally a real banger. Good variety from the verses to the hook. Southern influenced and funky. 8 Welcome to the Jungle ★★★☆ I'm not surprised Swizz Beatz produced this, the fast keys are very him, and perhaps become a tad monotonous. Fairly solid though. 9 Who's Gon Stop Me? ★★★ Okay... 10 Murder to Excellence ★★★★☆/★★★☆ Swizz provides another solid beat. Again Kanye is singing on the hook..... One of the better tracks though, talking about the African-American murder rate. Should have been longer../The track then changes to 'Excellence' with Jay rapping about black achievement. 11 Made in America (feat. Frank Ocean) ★★★★ I don't know why Jay-Z needs to be "egghing" after every bar, it gets on my nerves, but nevertheless this is one of the strongest tunes, with Kanye and Jay rapping about their rise to fame. Frank Ocean provides good vocals. 12 Why I Love You (feat. Mr Hudson) ★★★☆ Solid... 13 Illest Motherfucker Alive ★★★★☆ I'm not feeling the first three minutes, not much is happening, but the rest of it is head boppin' stuff. A more kind of simple hard hip hop tune. Lacking the subject matter but probably the best banger here. 14 H•a•m ★★★★ A definite grower from when I first heard this. 15 Primetime ★★★☆ 16 The Joy (feat. Curtis Mayfield) ★★★ A bit boring, particular on the hook, lacks that extra punch. Overall, after a slow start, the album improves with some tracks to go back to, and this isn't too far from a 3.5/5. However, many just lack that something extra to take it to the next level, or, there is something I don't like about them. As you can see above, about four tracks annoy me in some way. If I could give some advice to Kanye before his next album, it's stop singing and overusing samples and I'll love you again.

There is some extremely questionable production on this album, making it a difficult listen for the most part, particularly during the first half of the album. It does improve from 'Frat House' to the end of the disc to kind of save it from being completely mediocre. However, overall, why get together a 'super group' of rappers, if between the four of you, five with Em, you can't choose a beat? I enjoyed their first album, but this is quite disappointing. Best Tracks: Coffin, Frat House, Goodbye, Our Way (Outro)

I tried this some time after it dropped but nothing caught my attention and I don't think I even finished it. Going back to it now, my early thoughts remain and I'm still scratching my head. Q-Tip was apoplectic about not being awarded a Grammy for this!? It has a near 4/5 rating? In some circles it's ranked as a top 30 rap album of all time? 'Melatonin' was the first song to get me moving. 'Kids...' was the first with any noticeable rapping, thanks to Andre. While some of the lyrics in 'We the People' caught my attention, it was for their simplicity/stupidity rather than anything good. It gets better with the second disc, continuing on from the end of the first with the production getting more funky. Q isn't the most attention grabbing rapper, which is more noticeable with not a lot going on with the beats at times, with the features being the most memorable vocals. At times the vocals sound like they've been mixed too low compared to the beats. Some of the instrumental outros/portions of the songs go on for too long/are repetitive. It develops into a good/decent album after a boring beginning but I don't know, there isn't anything amazing here and it's way more than a couple of tenths out of five away from their best work and it isn't near the top 30 of the genre. Best Tracks: Kids..., Melatonin, The Killing Season, Conrad Tokyo