When J. Cole dropped “Miss America “last November, he announced a January 2013 release date for his sophomore LP. Cole is a good rapper and a good producer, but we all knew that wasn’t going to happen. How was a guy who had so much trouble getting his debut album on shelves going to get [...]

Action Bronson is hard worker. Last November, he and Alchemist teamed up for Rare Chandeliers, AB’s fourth full length since 2011. Between that project, Dr. Lecter, Blue Chips, and Well-Done, Bronson has proven his ability to flex nuts under any producer he chooses to work with. And that’s the thing: each release was done with [...]

You may be wondering if French Montana’s debut studio album Excuse My French makes good on French’s promise that it will be the best New York rap album of the last decade (or something like that?). It’s not. It’s not the best rap album of the decade, or of the year, and if you give [...]

Kids these days. From Drake to Tyler to A$AP, you pretty much have to drop a mixtape that sounds like an album if you want to blow up. And even that might not work (ask Dom Kennedy). So you’d better bust your ass. Chance the Rapper certainly does. The 20-year-old Chicago MC’s first full-length release, [...]

Ghostface Killah, the most prolific Wu-Tanger (also the best rapper of the bunch, depending on who you ask), has never gone away or fallen off. He’s the only Clan member who has consistently released quality music since the group’s inception. If you’re keeping track, Twelve Reasons to Die is his tenth solo album. His debut, [...]

Kid Cudi’s Indicud is being toted as a return to form for the rapper, after fan disappointment with Man on the Moon II and last year’s recycling bin classic, WZRD.  Despite his promises, though, Cudi seems unable or unwilling to back away from the atmospheric, rock-infused sound that made Man on the Moon II so [...]

Tyga’s second release under the YMCMB umbrella is pretty much summed up by its cover. Hotel California (ahem) is lazy and sloppy, a showcase for everything that isn’t good about Tyga. It’s a thrown together collection of songs that doesn’t even have the single power of his last LP. His concepts, if you want to [...]

Nearly two years removed from the sophomore effort that made him a star, Goblin, Tyler, The Creator is back with his third LP, Wolf. It’s Tyler’s most best and most accessible work to date. Talk about rape and murder is sparse, and Tyler’s production has evolved by leaps and bounds. If you can get past [...]

I Am Not a Human Being 2 is Lil Wayne’s fourth studio release since 2008’s leviathan, Tha Carter III. If you need a refresher: C3’s first follow-up, Rebirth, was ill-advised to begin with, and its release was maybe the most disastrous in recent memory; the original I Am Not a Human Being had some bangers, [...]

Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience comes to us nearly six years after his last proper studio release. Because the guy has been so busy since his last musical effort, 20/20 feels like the first album he’s releasing as “Justin Timberlake.” Since FutureSex/LoveSounds was recorded, JT has pretty much abandoned the music studio in favor of [...]