This lacks the funky A-tier production Erick Sermon was known for, but the boom bap beats are still solid. After the intro and a brief Scarface soundbite ("Fuck the fucking Diaz brothers!"), the title track comes in banging. 'Leave Your Style Cramped' is fairly average, but 'Rugged-N-Raw' gets things back on track with a hard-hitting beat and hook built around a Rare Earth sample of 'Eleanor Rigby'. 'Never Watered Down' carries a gritty, enjoyable darkness, while 'Kool Kat' offers some welcome funk and a catchy chorus. M.O.P. bring raw energy to 'It's the One', and the Biggie sample from 'Warning' is a nice addition 'It's the Pee' has an unfortunate name. Surely, if you were PMD and anyone in the studio with him you'd suggest to a least remove the e's. In a time with so much amazing boom bap and so many unique rappers, this isn't an compulsory listen but if you're curious what PMD could do as a solo artist it's worth checking out. Beats: ★★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★ Hooks: ★★★☆ Best Tracks: Rugged-N-Raw, Never Watered Down, It's the Ones, Rugged-N-Raw (Remix)

This is a slight downgrade from Black Rob's overlooked debut, but still well worth checking out. The quality is dope from the jump and it takes a while to drop off. Akon does what he did on everything around the time of this release and kills the hook of 'Watch Your Movements' and the nice balance of street and pop are well maintained over the next number of tracks as well before 'Ready' brings the listener back to the street. 'When You Come Home' feels a little like what we've heard before with a poppy hook and is the first average moment. I've always loved 'Y'all Know Who Killed Him'. It's dark, menacing instrumentation hook works so well with Biggie's borrowed vocals. 'Fire in da Hole' is another fun, high-energy song. 'Warrior' is the worst moment. Next 'Team' is a good posse track with five rappers just spitting over a likeable beat by Tony Dofat. From there, things wind down with a few solid cuts, rounding out an album that, while uneven in spots, still delivers more hits than misses. It might not reach the heights of 'Life Story', but 'The Black Rob Report' proves Rob still had plenty to offer. Beats: ★★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★ Hooks: ★★★☆ Best Tracks: They Heard I Got Life, Watch Your Movements, Star in da Hood, Y'all Know Who Killed Him, Help Me Out

The best on this are truly great songs and it doesn't get a lot better than the opening two tracks. They are among my favourite hip hop songs to be created. Some will love the throwback songs as well like Rick James' 'Mary Jane' or 'I Wanna Get Next to You' more than me too. Best Tracks: Friday, Keep Their Heads Ringin', Blast If I Have To 1. Friday 100 With 'Higher' this is one of Cube's best non-album tracks. 2. Keep Their Heads Ringin' 100 Another example of how great Dre's songs were.It's only missing a Cube verse. 3. Friday Night 60 Decent from Scarface and CJ Mac, who didn't release enough music. It lacks the energy and interesting production of the first two songs. 4. Lettin' Niggas Know 62 Kind of similar to the above in terms of quality with slightly more funk making it slightly better. 5. Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up 70 Decent catchy hook from Cypress HIll. More funk again. 6. Take a Hit 68 Another decent hip hop song with Mack 10 riding it in his usual style. 7. Tryin' to See Another Day 70 Decently rolls along until the guitar kicks in about 4/5th of the way through. 8. You Got Me Wide Open 60 A laid-back vibey track that never gets too interesting. 9. Mary Jane 70 Rick James' well known track that has been sampled lots in hip hop. 10. I Wanna Get Next to You 75 Classic '70s soul. 11. Superhoes 67 Seems influenced by Andrew Dice Clay's comedy including suggestive lyrics about cartoon heroes and nursery rhyme characters. Enjoyable production. 12. Coast II Coast 75 Bangin' but the skit in the middle of the song hurts it. 13. Blast If I Have To 85 The underrated E-A-Ski gives us the most G-song here. Fire. 14. Hoochie Mama 60 It's 2 Live Crew, so you know what to expect. High-energy sexually charged music. 15. I Heard It Through the Grapevine 55 Roger Troutman give us his version of the song through the talk-box.

I went into this with low expectations mainly because of the current reviews, rating, and how underwhelming Trae’s last album felt. But hip hop begins with the beats, and enough of these tracks knock with a dark, brooding energy to make me question the backlash. The lyrics are often basic and the hooks nothing special, but this still gets your head nodding and that’s something a lot of recent hip hop fails to do. This one pulls it off more often than not. Beats: ★★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★ Hooks: ★★☆ Best Tracks: Bigger Than Me, Big Homie, Let's Get It, Out the Way

I was never a big Wayne fan, and I think a lot of people who are fans of his older work need to relisten to his older music without the nostalgia glasses on. Technically, he raps well on much of this, switching up his flows, and even sounding influenced by Lil Dicky on a couple of verses, like on 'Loki’s Theme', but as usual, it's the lyrics, overall focus, and some production choices, that drag the songs down. He rhymes "nigger" with "nigger" for bars on bars on both 'Hip Hop' and 'Written History', something he’s done before, and it just comes off as lazy writing that weakens the tracks that are otherwise a couple of the better ones on the album. There are a few samples used with mixed results. 'Island Holiday' being the worst of them. The flip of LL’s 'Rock the Bells' on 'Bells' doesn’t hit hard enough to really work. It needed a bit more bite in the drums and Wayne isn't saying anything. He mumbles through 'Flex Up', which is a shame as the production is likeable, and while the metaphor-heavy 'If I Played Guitar' might work with a strong R&B or pop vocalist, it doesn't too well with Wayne drowning it in autotune. 'Mula Komin In' is just awful with poor vocals all round. 'Rari' has a poor hook and is another bad moment. 'Ave Maria' is such an amazing song that I can't hate 'Maria' as much as most are. 'Alone in the Studio with My Gun' isn't terrible either. People just have a hate boner for MGK. All in all, it's a mixed bag, with some straight skips, and nothing to add to a best of Wayne mix, but there are some good moments. Beats: ★★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★☆ Hooks: ★★☆ Best Tracks: Welcome to Tha Carter, Hip Hop, Written History