The album has more laughs than groans, and does make some good points at times with songs like "Green Power" even if it does so with the higher vocal tones of Otis' alter ego's alter ego.

Not every track on Lip Lock is a home run, but she bats for the cycle here and only strikes out a few times.

It may be hard to take Mac Miller seriously at times, but it's just as hard to dredge up any overwhelmingly negative feelings about Watching Movies save for two [the cover art and the deluxe edition feels like there's some filler material ].

It's not at Radiohead's level, simply because it's not as conceptually coherent; the lyrics may shock but they don't bite; the production (save for "On Sight" and a couple of others) is interesting but barely truly revolutionary within his own career arc, let alone when we count other contemporaries such as M.I.A. But while it might feel like an opportunity missed, at least Yeezus feels real.

Extended Play has the comfortable feel of a mid-to-late 1990's DJ Premier P-P-P-Premier mixtape though so I'm not mad at it--I just want Statik to knock his next one out of the stratosphere.

Born Sinner is a real grower, one that in many ways completely exceeds expectations and demands your attention.

POC is a step above his worst material and a far cry from his glory days.

Chance the Rapper builds on the formula that Kendrick Lamar rode to success last year, offering a lower-key, more introspective take on Kendrick's confessional half-sung raps.

As action-packed as beats and rhymes are, CZARFACE was a quick read I soon found myself putting back on the shelf.

Minus the niceness of "Manson Murder" and "Hater Love", this should have been a mixtape as it isn't a patch on any of Styles' previous LPs.

As much as I enjoy 13 and think it's probably his best solo work to date, I would like Havoc to floor me with a knockout album, rather than just leaving me feeling reasonably content.

For fans of RA The Rugged Man, this is essential. For fans of early Eminem, this is essential. For everybody else, if you can ignore the swearing and appreciate the intricacies of RA's rhyming, you'll undoubtedly enjoy this because at least 80% of this record is straight up dope hip hop.

As it stands, the album has some decent songs but doesn't hold together as an album.

Kool Herc: Fertile Crescent succeeds because it manages to balance Homeboy Sandman's unique delivery with fun, free-wheeling production.

It's hip, it's slick, it's polished, and it's an utter waste of time.

I'm not even sure I like it, but I do respect that it's exactly the unusual artistic vision these collaborators conceived.

Despite his years away acting, LL hasn't really lost his touch rapping. What he has lost is a sense of focus and direction.

There's Something 'Bout Kreay is the sound of a record company trying to turn 15 minutes of fame into a career, and spending way too much money in the process.

Whether it is a product of being stuck in mixtape territory for so long or having to work on a limited budget, The Nacerima Dream is neither dream nor nightmare.

Skyzoo has created an album that may not be the dream we all thought it could be, but it is one that will be playing in your mind long after you've nodded off.

If Jay-Z is like a smooth mellow shot of Maker's Mark, then Mad Child is like wolfing Bacardi 151 and Swollen Members follows it with a smooth Prevail chaser. If you like the burn, this machine is beautiful.

While most of these songs probably can't stand out alone, the project on the whole is a great addition to an already great catalog of one of hip hop's finest artists.

No Love Lost is too inconsistent to leave a lasting impression, and falls short of greatness.

York is an interesting and often times bizarre album.

This Generation is a solid album.

Scott Mescudi may be many things and nothing all at once but he's definitely not the "same lame old same thing."

Hotel California fails to deliver on any of the hype it had leading up to its release.

Whether he does fast angry raps like "Domo23" or revealing personal songs like "Lone," his music is never not fascinating.

Amalgamating these with pop choruses makes the listening experience too scattered and ultimately leads A Moving Picture to stutter from frame to frame, and it doesn't help that the experience bows down to every chart formula around.

It's an album with no direction, no cohesion and a striking lack of energy.

From the dance beats to the cross-pollination of guest artists to the old pop samples, Global Warming is a big dumb album that feels so calculated and market-tested that it is not much fun to listen to.

I Am Not a Human Being II flashes moments of brilliance, but it's far from his best work.

Home might be a bust as an instrumental hip-hop album, but it is very successful as a piece of well-crafted electronic music.

The Solution doesn't differ from the previous instalments at all. If you're a fan of either artist then it is certainly worth picking up.

There are also some genuine standout tracks, and all in all, A$AP Rocky and his team deserved the critical and commercial acclaim that will inevitably flood their way.

The fact that he duplicates his melodic inflections from previous albums in detail shows just how formulaic his music has become.

It's a decent but underwhelming album, and one that inspires apathy more than adoration or disgust.

Reloaded is a brilliant album but it is one that requires a certain mood.

Most poeple probably have those two tracks ["Love Sosa" and "I Don't Like"], and there isn't anything else on here that warrants buying this or taking the time to find a torrent of it.

There's at least one cringeworthy line in nearly every song.

It seems cliche to say it, but Trouble Man: Heavy Is The Head has a little bit for everyone.

He's an unusual flavor, but one that should still be considered a delicacy--even if it just might be bad for you.

There's far more good here than bad, but there's definitely a sense of familiarity to Diamond in the Ruff.

This isn't an immediate album. It's one that will take a few listens, but your patience will be rewarded.

To be honest, this just doesn't really feel like a Game album--there's a distinct lack of drama, of real hyperbole, of genuine excitement. It tends to come across as a resume.

While O.N.I.F.C. doesn't break new ground musically for Wiz, certainly not lyrically at least, his flight won't be grounded any time soon.

Wu-Block isn't a necessity, not for the Wu, not for the Block, not for hip-hop, not for the fans. And yet while it may be nothing more than a stopgap for all involved, it makes sense, not in theory but de facto.

It's about as weird and wonderful as you'd expect from a guy who looks like he's been living on a commune for the past ten years.

Vadim manages to mix hip-hop, dancehall, dubstep, soul, and electronic dance music into a concoction that works.

It is most definitely worth your time, money and investment and whilst the Re-Up section isn't particularly mind-blowing, it is definitely an intelligent addition that rectifies certain initial errors

No Love Deep Web continues Death Grips' death trip, and is another solid 47 minutes of artistic aggro.

What makes this record successful, is exactly what Lupe refused to do on "The Great American Rap Album:" make enjoyable songs first and spread a message second.

Usually an artist can try and re-create the album that gave him so much acclaim, or he can scrap everything and create something new and fresh, with the risk of alienating his fan base. P.O.S chose to do the latter with We Don't Even Live Here, but unlike many artists, he pulled it off without a hitch.

As a sequel to "The Greatest Story Never Told" some people will feel that it's not as good as the original, but as for this reviewer Saigon is still that dude who has something to say that's worth hearing.

Sean Price has rarely if ever lost a step and Mic Tyson is not going to be the time that he did.

He may be young and he may like to have fun, but he's also gotten depths of thoughtfulness that you don't have to dig deep for before they shine.

Ill Manors, depressing, blunt and provocative, fulfills one of rap music's most noble tasks--to touch the sore spots.

Until The Quiet Comes is another excellent album by one of the most interesting producers out there.

The Odd Future fam needs better quality control to stay relevant in 2013 and beyond.

There's a decade of depth to D. Swain that shows in every bar, note, and beat of this Payback, one which should hopefully give the music biz a big smack in the face.

Napalm is remarkably focused, not forsaking the established Xzibit sound but neither rehashing it.

Ali is a mess of contradictions, but his latest effort proves how well those contradictions work together. Mourning In America is another amazing album by Ali, hip-hop's best street preacher.

Making an album is a team game, and the end product isn't big enough, not quite as daring or bold as we may well have expected.

The biggest fault of Cruel Summer may be that it lacks a unifying voice or vision.

However challenging or confusing his rhymes can be, the songs still work with their combination of banging beats, rich lyricism, and twisted humor.

The debut was unexpectedly good and remains a classic. The official sequel to it was EXPECTED to be good and it is.

It's a historical artifact on an otherwise up-to-date album, one which is more important now that hip-hop needs a refresher on the essence of skills and the value of balancing the materialistic with the intellectual.

Antibalas' latest preserves the musical history of Fela Kuti, and is a hell of a good time.

This is, quite handily, so much of precisely "what is wrong with hip hop today"--tidily sequenced into an hour of mind numbing idiocy.

While the music is consistent and fairly unique in its murkiness, it's not particularly compelling and is a tad stale.

A mature performance over sleek, fresh production makes Life's Quest a pleasure.

Most of Let It Go is solid, but there are some skippable tracks.

Any fans of mainstream hip hop, probably wouldn't touch this with a 20 foot pole. But fans of Def Jux, Anticon, even some Rhymesayers will definitely see the appeal of Geti's lyricism and storytelling.

This album [is] unabashedly fun and very easy to listen to.

channel ORANGE is filled with brave music.

Apart from these misgivings [middle-core sequencing issues and "Nasty" not making the grade], it must be said that Nas has truly delivered.

"The Stoned Immaculate" is a perfect 2012 example of what I call hip-hop's Marijuana Mood Music era. Beautiful production through [sic] results in a gentle buzz, a mellow aural high that's relaxing and refreshing.

Buy it, enjoy it, and forget it. It's a fun bit of fluff.

It's clearly a release intended for hardcore Odd Future fans.

There are enough songs with worthwhile beats and guests to hold this album together to some degree, and depending on whether or not you like Flocka's lyrical style will be the degree.

The inspiring message that is clearly part of the appeal is still buried under too much empty rap rhetoric.

The problem is that it's just too light on hip-hop, and too close to the other experimental work they've already done in other side projects.

Rugby Thompson is one of those hard albums to critique in that as hip-hop it is inoffensive, and yet when it comes to pushing the boundaries of what the art and music could be there's literally nothing you could point to as innovative or revolutionary.

With so many albums in his volumnious catalogue, it's neither the best nor the worst, but a passable experience with intriguing beats and rhymes is all anybody can ask for from this eclectic eccentric of hip-hop.

In the end, I think that long time fans of Big K.R.I.T. will find the album to be well put together, but they'll still be left wanting just a bit more.

The end result is an album that is as unsuccessful as it is daring.

If you even have the least inkling of how funky giving Oh No "unlimited access" to the archives of Rudy Ray Moore would be, I think you realize how enjoyable it would be to let him loop these beats and cherry pick his favorite emcees to flow over them.

It is prime El-P, deep, heavy, funny, and banging all at the same time.

Whatever genre you want to label Dedication as, it is a remarkable album.

It's easily one of the best albums of the year so far, and has the sound and feel of a classic.

Vodka & Ayahuasca is not only one of the strongest rap releases so far this year, in terms of 'crazy combinations' it stands up to "Madvillainy" and "Hell: The Sequel."

Despite the superficial trappings of Strange Clouds his talent still breaks through the atmospheric turbulence and shines down on the listener.

This is gritty, grimy, hardcore hip-hop, as nasty as it wants to be.

The final installment is arguably the best of the three.

Regrettably though Soil 2 is a little more uneven than the last installment.

Ultimately the first edition of The Block Brochure is almost exactly what one could expect from an E-40 album, and if you already knew his steelo going in that's good news.

He's well-produced, well-connected, and well-forgettable.

The strength and the weakness of the Odd Future crew is that Tyler does stand out from the rest of the Wolf Gang, and in many ways.