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

Not a bad album from Fabo who is yet to make anything great from start to finish. The album does have a lot of featuring artists but nothing I've seen from Fabolous tells me he can do one on his own with any real success. He spits some catchy bars at times, but he doesn't have anything special either lyrically or in his delivery so his songs generally need to feature another voice. Overall, if you don't mind R&B hooks and a bit of pop rap enough of this album works. I love the hard 'Gangsta Don't Play' with Junior Reid also which helps the album get its three outta five. Best Tracks: Change Up, Make Me Better, Gangsta Don't Play, Brooklyn