The first two songs are great with K-Solo rapping with vigour. 'Premonition of a Black Prisoner' takes it down a notch where Solo gets more conscious and political as he does later on on 'Who's Killin' Who?' While the album fails to live up to the beginning there are still some other good tracks worth checking out. For an artist with two solid albums and someone who raps like fire, it's surprising this is as far as it went. He signed to Deathrow in the mid-'90s, and there were rumours he was going to put something out years ago on another label, but nothing has ever come to fruition. 1 I Can't Hold It Back ★★★★☆ 2 Letterman ★★★★★ 3 Long Live The Fugitive ★★★☆ 4 Premonition of a Black Prisoner ★★★☆ 5 Sneak Tip ★★★★ 6 The Baby Doesn't Look Like Me ★★★★ 7 The Formula (House Party) ★★★☆ 8 Who's Killin' Who? ★★★☆ 9 Household Maid ★★★☆ 10 Rock Bottom ★★★☆ 11 King of the Mountain ★★★★ Best Tracks: I Can't Hold It Back, Letterman, Sneak Tip, King of the Mountain.

"Deadpan Darling was a band started in 2005 by Blue Sky Black Death & Ceschi Ramos. Over the years, hard drives were lost, songs were erased & the project was presumed dead until producer Televangel managed to reconstruct parts & mix the project 15 years later." I love a lot of BSBD's work and the production on this isn't a letdown. I'm not a fan of the vocals by Ceschi though. If you put one of the other BSBD collaborators on here such as Yes Alexander, I'd like this a lot more. Best Tracks: Sorry, 10 Things, Mistaken

If you are not a Diddy hater, which a lot of people seem to be, and are into pop-rap, this is more than a reasonable album. If you are looking for lyrical hip hop, look elsewhere. The single of this album, 'Come to Me', (although not the best song) really tells you what to expect from this album. Not all my type of thing but I do enjoy some of these songs in bursts. The production is very crisp. Best Tracks: Everything I Love, Wanna Move, Diddy Rock, Last Night.

The beats on this album are my kind of thing. Funky, bouncy, containing samples, and gangsta. There isn't a beat I don't enjoy throughout these twelve tracks. The first couple particularly have very familiar samples that I could understand being tired of these days - 'Do This' sounds very similar to what was used in The Doc's 'It's Funky Enough'. And then 'MC Rod is Dope' seems to use the sample from the well known Kris Kross' 'Jump'. There is some conscious stuff thrown in (mainly on 'Life's a Bitch'/'I Come Up Hard'), and you would have heard most of these topics before (which isn't rare for a gangsta rap album), but MC Rod is nice on the microphone and rides these beats well. Another bangin' underheard album, which I think probably improves in the second half of the disc. Best Tracks: 100% Legit, I Come Up Hard, H.N.I.C., Life's a Bitch

I maintain that Ice Cube has the best run of albums out of any hip hop artist, and maybe from any genre altogether. Straight Outta Compton AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted Death Certificate Guerillas in tha Mist The Predator Lethal Injection Bow Down From his arrival with N.W.A, going solo, Da Lynch Mob, (that he is basically a member of), and then this, his success rate is unmatched. This has a fantastic start. The first three songs are fire and it never drops off much until the final three songs that just fall away enough for me to not give this a higher rating. The beats bang with some nice west coast g-funk touches and you can't go wrong with Cube and WC in particular, who are two of the best to come from the west, and Mack 10 does his thing as well. 3.5-4 / 5. Beats: ★★★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★☆ Hooks: ★★★☆ Best Tracks: Bow Down, Gangstas Make the World Go Round, All the Critics in New York, The Gangsta, the Killa and the Dope Dealer