'Mess', with its change up around two minutes in improves it immensely, making it build up to something worth waiting for, but lots of these songs aren't worthy of saving for later and offer very little originality-some of the song titles alone tell the story. There is another version of 'He Aint Me' where Marques drops names of R&B legends like R. Kelly and Usher instead of just saying "he" as found on the album version that is interesting to hear and was a recipe for some potential beef starting. Overall, there isn't much here and it's Marques' least interesting and enjoyable album. Best Tracks: Mess, Ghetto Angel

Like Joe's previous album, 'Bridges', there is a different vibe here than the contemporary R&B sound from most of his career. I don't think this is as strong from start to finish, but there are still some great moments. It takes a while to warm up with 'So I Can Have You Back' at track four being the first one to get excited about. The final track is a cover of Adele's hit, 'Hello', that Joe kills, and 'So I Can Have You Back' sounds a little like it as well. The other standouts are 'Tough Guy', and the country 'Hollow', proving that Joe sounds good over anything, with 'No Chance' and 'Hurricane' bubbling under. The one track with a rap feature, 'Happy Hour' with Gucci Mane, is one of the weaker on offer but adds to the variety of sounds on the album. As I write this in 2023, this is Joe's last album, as he said it would most likely be at the time of release. Best Tracks: So I Can Have You Back, Hollow, Tough Guy, Hello

From the jump, this one feels like Joe went down the R. Kelly lane of some throwback R&B, like he did with the albums 'Love Letter' and 'Write Me Back'. It's a step up from his last album, 'Doubleback: Evolution of R&B', with it just being at a higher consistent level throughout the album. The best songs have strong replay value, are scattered, adding to the album's replayability, and feature a number of different sounds. There is more general R&B, that Joe is known for, like on 'Dilemma', as mentioned, there are throwback themes heard on 'Future Teller' and 'Sex Ain't a Weapon', strong soul songs that build up nicely such as 'Till the Rope Gives Way', and upbeat, dance, disco-esque songs like 'Love Sex Hollywood'. Upon revisiting it for this list the album was better than I remembered it being. Best Tracks: Future Teller, Dilemma, Sex Ain't a Weapon, Blame Her Broken Heart on Me, Till the Rope Gives Way, For Love

This is a consistently nice R&B project, but the high moments are lower than any Joe album up until this point in his career and maybe from any of his albums. The title track aside, there is probably nothing here to pop into a top 50 Joe song playlist. After the similar vibe of many songs, the Too Short assisted '1 to 1 Ratio' is a nice change up with some more bounce and energy in the production. A decent three out of five. Best Tracks: Something for You, Baby, Magic City, More, 1 to 1 Ratio, DoubleBack

'What the Fuck' isn't the best way to kick the album off with it borrowing the bad hook from Nore's '98 hit 'Superthug' ("what, what, what, what, what", etc), but then the album has a run of dope songs. 'Thug Poetry' has an eerie beat and features some enjoyable spitting, including from the feature Saafir, 'Suckas Do What They Can (Real Playaz)' will make you bounce, and 'U Can't Fade Me' tells the story of a woman trying to baby trap Spice that uses Ice Cube's 'You Can't Fade Me' instrumentation that is impossible not to enjoy. Then 'Killerfornia' is the next attention grabbing moment. The following 'Gone With the Wind' to a lesser extent is also nice, with both songs getting more conscious and featuring some nice hooks that include enjoyable female sung vocals. The following couple of tracks are decent with likeable hooks with 'Make Sure They Bleed' giving me a strong 2Pac vibe. Those aside though, there are too many songs that come and go, and the album falls away after some of the best moments around the middle of the album. It does sound a lot different to Spice's previous album from only two years prior sounding much more like a product of its time with some of the 'Shiny Suit Era' production touches being featured. I think I will rank this just below his debut, but it's a close call. Up until this point in '99, it was his worst solo effort largely due to some average-poor production. Beats: ★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★ Hooks: ★★★ Best Tracks: Thug Poetry, Suckas Do What They Can (Real Playaz), U Can't Fade Me, Killerfornia. Gone With the Wind 1. Intro Skit 2. What the Fuck 60/100 3. Thug Poetry 80 4. Suckas Do What They Can (Real Playaz) 90 5. U Can't Fade Me Skit 6. U Can't Fade Me 84 7. Club Skit 8. Can I Hit It? 62 9. High Powered 64 10. Killerfornia 86 11. News Flash Skit 12. Gone With the Wind 84 13. Too Deep in the Game 72 14. Make Sure They Bleed 70 15. Ride Fo' Mine 63 16. Street Skit 17. Immortalized 74 18. Fuck the World 50 19. Droopy Skit 20. 187 Proof (2 Thougin') 56 21. Ride Wit Me 64