A decent funky west coast hip hop album. It never reaches any extraordinary heights but the best are bouncy tunes. Beats: ★★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★☆ Hooks: ★★★☆ Best Tracks: Ghetto Star, Addicted to Crime, Money, Houses and Cars

I stayed away from this because of the lukewarm reputation it has but I like a lot of it. It does have unique touches but it isn't as rock-influenced as a number of listeners make it seem with a number of songs still maintaining the foundations of hip hop. It starts off slow. I don't like anything much until track 4, but from there it gets on a roll. 'Grown Man Business' is dope with the 'The Cecil Holmes Soulful Sounds' 'I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby' sample (he basically just raps over the start of the song) that has been used on a number of tracks including Nas' 'No Idea's Original', but why do the vocals sound like he recorded it on a phone? Another strong song is 'Modern Marvel', but I wish it was broken up into three tracks as it takes 3 minutes to take off, the next 3 minutes are nice, but the best portion is the final 3 minutes. Elsewhere, Kanye, back when he was an amazing producer, on the boards and Mos on the mic, kill 'Sunshine'. I think that's the best song here. 'The Rape Over', removed from pressings and not found on streaming platforms today, is a short, but hard critique of the rap industry. 'The Takeover' beat fits perfectly for this. Again though, the 'vocals' are low quality. It switches up with 'Blue Black Jack' with a near bluesy instrumental and the next song 'Bedstuy Parade & Funeral March' follows those musical themes. 'Sex Love and Money' and 'Close Edge', that fans of the Chappelle Show will recall, take it back to rawer beats with Mos rapping with vigor. Along with 'Freaky Black Greetings', 'The Easy Spell' is one of the most rock-influenced. I don't love the hook here that repeats throughout the verse too. Along with the second half of 'War', it's my least favourite song. Mos follows that with something completely different; a heartfelt soul song, where he sounds like Bob Marley at times. Most albums either start or end with the strongest tracks, but here, the middle is the best portion. There are lots of musical themes here, which probably explains the average reputation it has as someone loving everything on offer is unlikely. Well worth checking out for something a little different. Best Tracks: Zimzallabim, Sunshine, Close Edge, Grown Man Business, Modern Marvel (from the 3min mark)

The Eastsidaz consist of Snoop Dogg, Tray Deee and Goldie Loc. This starts off a little slow but there are some dope songs along the way and it arguably improves as it progresses. It shouldn't be a surprise when you see the likes of Battlecat, Jelly Roll, Soopafly and others on the producer list that it sounds very 'west coast'. It's a side-project from Snoop but this and the other Eastsidaz album shouldn't be overlooked if you're a Snoop Dogg fan or of just west coast hip hop in general. Really consistent with a few bangers. 3.5-4/5 Best Tracks: Got Beef, Balls of Steel, Nigga 4 Life, Take It Back to '85

As you can probably guess from the rating I have given this it's a mix of good and average tracks. The opener is a good west coast banger as is 'Street Shit' later on which both feature Glasses Malone who is apparently going to be releasing a full collab album with Mack 10 soon. My other picks are a bit less generic in subject matter, 'Dedication (To the Pen)' has another good hard beat and is about his homies in jail, and 'Mirror, Mirror' where Mack gets personally deeper and talks about his ex T-Boz from TLC and the restraining order put against him amongst other things, and is a track I have been really enjoying. Other than those four a few others such as 'Hoo-Bangin' II', 'Pushin' and 'Dope Boy' ain't bad. Overall, there is some alright gangster rap on offer which is what you have always got from Mack 10, nothing lyrically special but some reasonable beats and tracks. Best Tracks: Big Balla, Mirror Mirror, Street Shit, Dedication (To the Pen).

The first track 'Hate in Your Eyes' bangs. Dre is the producer with Storch on the keyboards which we know from Still D.R.E. can be an amazing formula. The chorus borrows a little from 'Stayin' Alive' by the Bee Gees. As the title suggests, the song is about haters. The following 'Let the Thugs in the Club' is decent but then it runs into problems. 'So Serious' is boring with the "so serious" line being constantly repeated which gets annoying. From there it just varies from decent to poor. The production isn't attention-grabbing and much of the lyrics are likewise, being your standard gangster rap. 'Work' kind of bangs, and 'Let It Be Known', produced by QD III, does as well, featuring the legend Scarface, and Xzibit, who sounds great on it as well. I've checked out nearly all of Mack's discography and this is near the bottom of the list. Beats: ★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★☆ Hooks: ★★☆ Best Tracks: Hate in Your Eyes, Let It Be Known