Weekend at Burnie's has earned a regular spot in my iPod rotation. I may not be a full-ledged jet but I when I do fly I've got no problem letting Curren$y be my pilot.

Beyond his mic skills, King also hints at Tyga's more seriously minded side, a side that surfaces again and again throughout the album.

In and of itself, Self Made 2 is a decent album that should find relative success.

IV Play finds Dream delving into more sounds and styles than ever before.

Though at times she panders to the club a bit much, and doesn’t provide quite the depth that is expected of a self-titled album and an artist on her fifth go around, Ciara is filled with a fun batch of songs.

9th's created an album that slowly backs away from the bigger, heavily soulful tracks he's best known for and delivers some more subtle, softer work.

I don't think My Life II in and of itself will go down as one of Mary's best albums; for all its quality it just doesn't have the focus and vision of a classic and occasionally seems to pander to the hot house/techno/club trend.

Lupe seems to have accepted that Lasers is not the masterpiece he originally set out to make and is prepared to move on. Maybe we should follow his lead.

Whatever, the point is that instead of snare hits and cymbal crashes Barker's real contribution came from behind the boards--he's got a production credit on every one of the album's tracks. By the same token he's often paired with other producers, and when it works, like on the RZA influenced Carry It, it really works. Unfortunately, when it doesn't work, it really doesn't.

After Rolling Papers Wiz' fan base should expand significantly, as should the number of rap purists angry about his lack of rhyme skills, but complaining about his "rap" skills completely misses the point.

W.A.R. is only his third project in over ten years. If you're going to pursue quality over quantity you better deliver quality, and thankfully W.A.R. is nothing but quality.

Maintaining the same "burn down the building" energy that your most loyal fans demand while not actually burning down the building is no easy task, but it's a fine line that MGK mostly manages to walk with success on Lace Up.

Thankfully we finally have some more new Quik in our lives in the form of his eighth solo album, The Book of David, an album that finds the legendary DJ going back to his roots, and creating some nice music in the process.

You may not love this album, and I'm not sure I do, but you do have to respect it.

At first listen, you'll think this album is a disappointment and didn't live up to the hype. And maybe it didn't, but this isn't Bastard--it's an album with a much deeper theme and message, with just enough blood-thirsty lines and misogyny to hold the kids over.

If he was hoping to prime his artists for individual success, he's got a long way to go. But if he was simply looking to keep Maybach's name on everyone mind via a loosely defined collection of bangers, well then it looks like Rick Ross still can't do wrong.

While Tinie's obviously talented, I honestly can't hear what all the excitement is over. Sure something will get lost in translation, but even on mega hit Written in the Stars I'm just not catching any lyricism that stands out. Then again, maybe that's what makes Tinie so popular.

If every album from here on sounds like Planet Pit the public will begin to forget just what made him so special in the first place, but right here, right now, it's Pitbull's world and we're just living partying in it.

There's a fine line between consistency and monotony, so while The Cool Kids' style can, over the course of a project, begin to feel like a drone, these bursts of change keep When Fish Ride feeling fresh.

While Rowland continues to define her own sound, it still feels like she's giving us who she thinks we want to hear, not who she is.

There's just no contemporary precedent for music like this. And that might just be the best sign of all.

It feels like Wiz is mostly coasting through this album, giving his already loyal fans exactly what they'd expect from him and not much else.

Listeners may be able to follow Rock home and live vicariously through him, but for thousands that is their home. There's no leaving, and those are the people who Follow Me Home was truly made for.

How Do You Do is a great listen, but...there's just no getting around the fact that Mayer Hawthorne isn't an especially strong singer.

It may have its moments of aggression, but ultimately Habits & Contradictions is often a more quiet and thoughtful album.

We can safely assume that Dreams and Nightmares is the best Meek can possibly muster. And if this is indeed Meek's best, Meek's best is pretty good.

The "album" feels like a bunch of random songs, some quality songs mind you, but still just a bunch of songs that don't add up to anything larger.

The album might not be nearly good enough to launch him into any "classic" conversation, but it also not nearly bad enough to be viewed as a sign of his impending demise.

The truth is in the eye of the beholder, and with easily accessible albums like Fortune, there will continue to be a lot of eyes on Chris Brown.

Overall, Kiss Land is a decent first full-length, but for the hype that The Weeknd had built up leading to this release, some (if not most) will say that it failed to meet expectations, especially compared to the incredible hype that surrounded his 2011 debut.

Jesus Piece certainly isn't his best album, but if it ends up being his worst, then Jayceon's doing pretty damn good for himself.

Absolutely none of the album is bad, but it's enough like Drake to make me feel like I might as well be listening to Drake, enough like The Weeknd to make me feel like I might as well be listening to Weeknd, etc. etc. etc.

The simple truth is this is the kind of music you're best off not thinking too much about.

Most of Fear of God feels like detached, competent, common-denominator, major-label hip-hop, which would be fine if we weren't already aware what he's capable of.

Unapologetic is by no means a bad album, it'd be nearly impossible to combine the music industry's best songwriters, producers and Rihanna's charismatic delivery and not create quality music, but as an album Unapologetic has no real core, no real theme; unless you count "making hits" as a theme.

Based on a T.R.U. Story isn't a great album, but was anyone expecting a great album from 2 Chainz?

The rapping isn’t the problem, it’s his singing and eccentric sounds that leaves me with Van Gogh thoughts.

Her talent and voice makes up for the fact that Lioness isn't really an album, but more like a collection of unfinished business.

He’s obviously still capable of moments of greatness, but right now those moments are so dulled by surrounding mediocrity they’re becoming lost.

Influenced by what The Pharcyde did two decades ago, what Drake perfected a few years ago, and what many others have attempted since, Ink’s melodic tastes and rhyming style draws from all of these influencers. The problem is, he can’t quite charm like Wiz Khalifa, rhyme like Big Sean, or create art like Drake. Yet.

There is very little to write home about here, and for the most part it feels very hastily made.

At its best, the California singer offers sweet but forgettable elevator music.

It has to be said though that the places where WZRD struggles most are the places where Dot and Cudi leave their hybrid sweet spot and try to go straight rock.

Nothing on par with the classics but he has plenty of moments where his strengths are showcased.

At 12 tracks long, Evolution may lack any real oomph or spectacle, but it also contains little filler, which is an achievement in today’s singles dominated, bloated albums.

This album is about keeping Brown relevant and making the musical man child marketable again, and on that level it's a moderate success. He's still got a long way to go before he regains his previous stature.

The tracks do not really flow into each other or sound good in sequence, but individually some records do shine.

Maybe he's burnt out, maybe he just doesn't care as much anymore, but whatever the reason, Tha Carter IV just doesn't feel like one of the biggest albums of the year – at all.

These are good songs, but we don't come to Waka for good.

We'll simply have to look at I'm Gay as a sign that B might not prove to be the flash in the pan that so many haters hope he is.

Lacking the dynamic between repulsive brutality and oddball humor that made Earl so uncomfortably riveting, Doris is both tonally fragmented and occasionally monotonous: an ocean of griminess broken up by earnest confessional rhymes.

The young Somalian is far from the first artist to have to figure out "their" sound while sweating under the spotlight, and by the sound of Silence he's still figuring things out.

Here both the production and Nicki's delivery border on absurdist theater, at one point devolving into Nicki literally making noises.