I really like this album and it's my pick from Big Daddy Kane's discography. I feel the mid '90s Golden Age production throughout the whole album (some of which BDK produced himself), and with his brilliant flow BDK rides them well as usual. Lyrically maybe it ain't near the plethora of great '94 material in the genre, but for me as I can't love the early BDK material because I'm not a huge fan of the production, this release gives me a chance to enjoy his brilliant style and skill over beats more to my liking, and that's the kind of people who I'd recommend this to. Best Tracks: Brooklyn Style... Laid Out, Lyrical Gymnastics, That's How I Did Hem, Somebody's Been Sleeping In My Bed

Large Professor is a certified hip hop legend and one of the best to produce. He was without a doubt the most important member of this crew and along with the other members of the group provides some of the best really early '90s beats and hooks, as well as rapping of course. As with all of Large P's music the message is positive and this is a must. Even the bonus tracks are fantastic. Best Tracks: Looking at the Front Door, Peace Is Not the Word to Play, Fakin the Funk, Looking at the Front Door (Uncut) (Unreleased), Time (Unreleased)

This is the only thing from KRS I love. I've checked out a BDP album or two but I find the beats boring, and his other solo work largely lack in the production as well. While I don't love everything here, the first ten songs or so entertain a heap, except for 'Uh Oh' which would have worked better as a two minute track as the beatboxing beat never changes. The beats still lack a lil at times, but there is enough great stuff here. Best Tracks: Outta Here, Mortal Thought, I Can't Wake Up, Sound of da Police, Mad Crew, Brown Skin Woman

While brilliant at times, ('Born 2 Live'/'Point O Viewz'), on occasions the fairly raw boom bap beats just don't excel quite enough ('Time's Up'/'No Main Topic') to grade this with the absolute best of the best. And while O.C. can rap, he doesn't have that distinctiveness in his voice that most artists do in the albums I consider to be toward the top of the class. I think this shows in that while I've listened to this a few times, I haven't really paid much attention to the lyrics at all. Despite the mostly negative review (it's been praised enough I guess), as the rating suggests I still highly recommended this, but not enough tracks blow my mind to grade this as a pure classic. Best Tracks: Word...Life, O-Zone, Born 2 Live, Point O Viewz, Ga Head, Born 2 Live (remix)

An interesting album which for me never really gets going until the songs in the middle, and like College Dropout, it finishes better than it begins. The first few tracks are nice but nothing excellent with Gold Digger only really getting interesting for me about 2:40 into it when we get that funky change up in the beat. From 'Crack Music' though my enjoyment increases, and then we see a couple of tracks in 'Roses' and 'Bring Me Down' that to me feel a lil like some of the long songs we'd see years later on Fantasy. Then with the thirteenth track we get a song which rivals Jesus Walks for Kanye's best single. Then 'We Major', 'Gone' and the international bonus track 'We Can Make It Better' are late stand outs with great production and features. It is maybe a tad less consistent as his debut, but the best stuff is still some of the best hip hop from this decade with some great beats, and the kind of stuff I wish he'd get back to producing. Best Tracks: Crack Music, Diamonds (Remix), We Major, Gone, Diamonds, We Can Make It Better.