It does highlight Justin Scott and Big K.R.I.T. in their truest essence; spiritual, witty, and loyal to Mississippi, with overly soulful, southern production. Thanks to 4eva Is a Mighty Long Time, Justin Scott has once and for all ensured that his musical legacy is worth remembering.

Rapsody evolves on this latest album--increasingly comfortable revealing a wide range of personal facets while developing into an apt storyteller.

The album doesn’t move the needle for Guwop’s creative progression forward and at times sounds as if it doesn’t even aspire to. In a nutshell, Mr. Davis is simply a party celebrating Gucci’s personal growth alongside his star-studded friends.

The Saga Continues is not the home run that Wu-Tang Clan fans have been waiting for, but to keep the baseball analogy, it’s an RBI double. Mathematics does some much-needed course correction.

When Macklemore deviates from his familiar sound, he gets mixed results.

Luv Is Rage 2 is proof that Lil Uzi Vert is simply an artist who succeeds in makes music he loves, for people that hold tightly to his carpe-diem attitude.

While Vol. 2 provides instrumentation that commands each track. Most of the beats consist of rattling snares and melodic 808 drums that drive a uniform basis without sounding totally identical.

This is an impressive showcase for his fans.

It’s unabashedly fun and a refreshing celebration of sample-based beats in a genre largely moving away from them. There’s no deep thinking or worldly insight here, but Bronson has never tried to be that artist. He sticks to what he does best and succeeds in doing so.

Still Striving is yet another noticeable notch in his growing catalog that might just make his fellow Mob members, specifically Rocky, understand it’s time to really start putting in work.

This debut shines so brightly in comparison to what Aminé’s contemporaries are passing off that it may be easy to forget that it is not exactly a groundbreaking album. Regardless, the rookie should be commended for crafting an honest, entertaining and revealing album.

Sounds Of Crenshaw Vol. 1 feels like the ideal soundtrack to the iconic 23-mile street named after the real estate banker George Lafayette Crenshaw. It won’t transcend to other hoods but Martin and crew win by developing a project that’s sonically ambitious from beginning to end.

Clocking in at 47 minutes, the album is both Tyler, The Creator’s shortest and most cohesive album to date and is full of introspective admissions that logically line up with his public character.

What hampers Montana the most on Jungle Rules are the album’s most compelling features--the actual features. While his ear for strong cameos remains a key ingredient to his success, it’s also taking away from his artistry. Montana can certainly make a song but guest stars shouldn’t be constantly stealing the shine from the headline act.

The budding star easily could have played it safe and stuck to a winning formula, which remains a strong suit (i.e. Issa’s “Bank Account” and “Close My Eyes”). Instead, he challenged himself to be more musically ambitious. While his experiments didn’t produce dynamic results, the positives overshadow the negatives.

Celebrating their 30th anniversary, there’s still plenty of life in the elder statesmen who once started a musical revolution.

Admiringly, it’s taken him his entire career to get to this point and a project like this finds him breaking out of the box he’s occupied since arriving on the scene.

There are several JAY-Z albums that are superior in terms of musical creativity, but never has the man behind the Roc chain been more prolific in thought. It’s catharsis on steroids, walking the tightrope between FYI and TMI.

The first half of the album, Khaled showed precise execution, stacking banger after banger. Had he sliced the album down to 15 or 16 tracks, he could have secured a very special project.

While Vince sticks with his most familiar narrative examining stardom’s futility despite it providing escape from former life’s struggles, his calling lies in finding provocative, edgy and unconventional ways to tell his story. Luckily, Staples’ choice to walk the road less traveled placing innovation at a premium over fame shouldn’t prevent his well deserved shine from gaining continual momentum.

While there are moments on Boomiverse that reminds you of who you’re listening to, the lows are painful and distracting, to say the least. Weak production and terrible hooks drown out the enjoyable moments of the supposed intergalactic trip.

Despite the lack of range, Pretty Girls Like Trap Music goes down as 2 Chainz’ strongest LP to date and will become a reference point for anyone curious about how the towering rap star can service their turn-up needs.

His penchant for memorable music makes up for a lack of dexterity and gives DropTopWop a strong sense of unique artistry.

Altogether a worthwhile concept that once deserved to see the light of day, excessive filler and intermissions dull the shine of a release should have been actualized while the public demand for Frank White vocals was greater.

Hip Hop’s gatekeepers will say that timing and the repetitive nature of Logic’s lyrics hurts Everybody but for Logic’s younger core fan base, especially those going through struggles of their own, his latest work will be the catharsis to keep them from plunging off the deep end.

Urgent and impactful as always, his heartfelt music succeeds at balancing out traditional drum programming with original music composition.

Pain is practically synonymous with art, so it’s not surprising Blige has delivered another round of raw, gritty and emotionally transparent songwriting.

There’s not much range here, just an excess of swag, but it’s worth a listen solely for the moments where Carti seems to accidentally stumble upon a wild flow (“Dothatshit!”), or an irresistible infection (“Half & Half”)