If you look at the three featuring artists from 'Live at the Barbeque', Nas went on to become one the most popular rappers, releasing one of the most acclaimed albums of all time, Joe Fatal went on to not doing anything much, and Akinyele has released a few albums but never achieved a lot, and given his 'Put It in Your Mouth' flavoured songs, he never fit the mould to make it big, so it brought about mixed fortunes. Stylistically Akinyele is a fun original rapper, with some comedic bars, adlibs, lots of songs about sex which he shows more of on future albums, and he does create some enjoyable music. This album for me has always been one with a quarter of a dozen or so of stand-outs, with the remainder not being different enough musically for it to be a classic, but it never drops off much with an enjoyable 11 tracks of boom bap. Close to four out of five stars. Best Tracks: Worldwide, Outta State, The Bomb

Aktapuss contains more explicit sexual lyrics than his debut 'Vagina Diner', but as far as listening goes, I enjoy both of them considerably. Quality beats, funny lyrics and adlibs, and a good flow make this an enjoyable treat from Akinyele who has an original style. It is probably a few tracks too long though as Ak doesn't change it up enough for it to be a repeatedly listened to. This also contains a must listen cover of Biggie's 'Juicy' in 'Coochie'. Best Tracks: Butt Naked, Coochie, Sister, Rather Fuck You, Put It in Your Mouth

While this certainly doesn't have the same racial intensity as their previous album, there are still plenty of good beats on this release to enjoy. The lyrics and rapping though, unlike their debut, really sort of fall behind the beats at times and you find yourself paying much less attention to them throughout most songs. Also different is that there is less Ice Cube (who produced a fair bit of this) featured on tracks - however, the one song he is on on this album, 'Mellow Madness', is one of the weaker ones here. While there are a few songs which feel like they drag on a tad, like the title track, and 'Mellow Madness', the album finishes strong, and while maybe not up with the plethora of great 94' material, or as original as their debut, this is still one I'd recommend for fans of west coast rap. Best Tracks: Chocolate City, King of the Jungle, Going' Bananas, Environmental Terrorist, Set the Shit Straight, Trapped.

I gave this a couple of spins and nothing at all has stood out. The production is a far cry from what he had earlier in his career and there is nothing memorable. The final two tracks are re-recorded versions of 'Bed' and Suffocate', two of his most successful songs, with 'Bed' being one of my most listened to songs of all time, but even they are a letdown. The production is much weaker on 'Bed' than the original, the repeated "hair" and "legs" that the background female sings on the original sounds weird here, like it's too soon, and J's vocals aren't as powerful. It's still the best thing here though.

This is my first listen of a The Weeknd project. There is a lot of fanfare associated with him in R&B circles, but I've never felt the urge to listen. After listening to this I'm not extremely impressed. He has a much better voice than Drake, but that kind of one paced/limited range singing seems present with The Weeknd as well. I don't know if that's as far as his vocal talent extends or that's just the lane he has chosen for this type of music. There are times like on 'Pretty', when I think he is going to take off but his voice stays exactly the same. Whatever the reason, it just ends up feeling like it could've been better. A Michael Jackson, who he does somewhat resemble when he is at his highest pitch, would tear the track up. The production's all pretty dark/a bit cloud rap influenced and is fairly good throughout. Overall it's very solid and I liked it much more on my second listen than my first. A bit more extension in the vocals, a reduction in some of the song's lengths ('Kiss Land'), and no Drake featured, would have made this better. Best Tracks: Adaptation, Pretty, Tears in the Rain