A borderline 4/5 as there aren't enough if any songs that I truly love on this to 4 it. I do enjoy it more than most if not all Jay-Z albums though. The main reason for this is that it contains the most enjoyable beats from the beginning to the end out of his discography. Not all are great but I enjoy enough enough to rate this highly. Not that it's ever been a strength compared to the best of them, lyrically and topically this wouldn't be his greatest as it's mostly brag rap, and the retirement talk of course ended up being bullshit, but I've never loved Jay's style on the microphone so the production is always my main interest and focus when listening to him. I feel though this album could have been slightly improved. For example, remove/reduce his mum on 'December 4th' which would improve the flow of the track, 'Encore' is good but I enjoy the harder version Jay and LP did, remove/dub down Cedric the Entertainer on 'Threat' and lastly, a few less samples during the song 'Lucifer' - I like Kanye who produced it, but he can really overdo the sampling sometimes. Just on 'Threat', it is a song that I used to love, but overtime it has dropped a level or two. Overall though, for me from an artist with a fairly overrated discography and legacy, this is the Jay-Z album I feel flows on the best from track to track without anything that is poor making it arguable his most consistently enjoyable release. Best Tracks: Encore, Threat, Moment of Clarity

Four songs stand out on this album and will probably be ones that you will want to play a few times (see below). 'Word' is worth mentioning with its ol' school feel to it which many long term fans of the genre should enjoy. While nothing is bad, everything else makes this album a fairly standard west coast gangsta rap affair. C-Bo goes missing at times also with many guest appearances in the middle for the album. Best Tracks: If U a Gee, Ball 4 a Livin', On Top, Word.

Is this a classic? Maybe not, but it is a fun hip hop record and one which really doesn't deserve to be hated on and one that every time I play I enjoy more and more. While Shaq has a fairly basic flow he spits some comedic lines which add to that fun factor mentioned earlier. The featured rappers are nice also which this album no doubt needed, and the beats are funky from Erick Sermon (who handles four of the ten tracks), with Def Jef, Meech Wells, K-Cut and Ali Shaheed Muhammad who is of course a member from A Tribe Called Quest doing the rest of the work. It's always a joy to hear a few of the best from this. Best Tracks: (I Know I Got) Skillz, I'm Outstanding, I Hate to Brag, Shoot Pass Slam, Boom

The beats, by No I.D. are a blend of trap rap, pop rap and soulful tunes. There isn't much I love at all. The topics range from what the title will infer, Chicago's violence, to chick songs, to the old days. Common has never been a rapper I've loved, but here it's even less so. Some of the rhyming such as 'money' with 'funny' sounds like he used the first rhyme that came to mind. Overall it's disappointing. Common spits some knowledge but isn't at his best and the production is quite underwhelming as well. Best Tracks: The Neighbourhood, Speak My Piece, Kingdom

As I wrote this, this was the last Naughty album as a trio and most would say their worst together, and I can't disagree with that. It's more poppy than their previous albums so it will turn pop-rap haters off once they've reached the middle of the album. I think these guys were one of the better groups at touching pop rap though, largely thanks to Kay Gee who produced it so well and Treach sounding so great over the beats. Some of the grittier sounding tracks like 'Ring the Alarm' are more than decent as well and 'Live or Die' is quite menacing too. I'm probably overrating it being a long time fan, but there is still enough enjoyable stuff for the ears and there is nothing bad. Although if you were to make a top ten or twenty list of their best songs, 'Holiday' is the only possible one from this album that could make it I'd say. Worth a listen for fans but otherwise check out there first three albums. Scrapes in for a 4/5 from a long time fan. Best Tracks: Ring The Alarm, Holiday, Jamboree, Radio, Would've Done the Same for Me, The Blues