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

The rapping by Jay catches my attention more than much of his other work, but again, I'm not a big fan of his beat selection. Most just lack that something extra, and many have a poppy undertone to them I don't like. Lyrically, there is very little substance also as it's mostly brag rap. While there are some atrocious songs like 'Things That U Do', this is probably a notch better than his previous Vol. album thanks to a few more beats that I like, but for me this is an album for Jay fans who love his style and wanna hear him rap well as opposed to hearing great production. Best Tracks: So Ghetto, Snoopy Track, There's Been a Murder, Come and Get Me

This had been in my to listen to list for a long time. In that time I had no idea that for much of the album I'd be hearing a guy on helium rapping. While the high vocals aren't as bad as they sound like they'd be, I'd bet that if this were by some no name artist and not the well renowned Madlib that it wouldn't have the rep it does. Furthermore, you have to ask yourself, would this be better without the high voice? Surely the answer would be yes. After all that, it won't be a surprise to hear me say that the production is the best part of this. A number of the song intros are great, and then the vocals kick in.... However, not all are brilliant 'Discipline 99 Pt. 0', 'Goodmorning Sunshine' and 'Jazz Cats Pt. 1' among others are all pretty boring and the yelling on 'Put a Curse on You' is extremely annoying. Also, on 'Return of the Loop Digga' Madlib disses producers for reusing the same sample, but he does on MHB's using one from the well known Ho Happy Jackie by AZ, not to mention Nas from Illmatic among others I've noticed. That's not really loop diggin'... Overall the vocals are a strange decision and I don't hear the originality and more importantly the greatness in enough of the beats that others speak of. 2.5-3 / 5. Best Tracks: Microphone Mathematics, Low Class Conspiracy, MHBs, Boom Music, Axe Puzzles, Discipline 99 Pt. 1