While Ludacris may be professing loudly to do it for hip-hop on his latest album, it's refreshing to know he can do it for hip-hop and still do it for the mainstream who may not realize just how artful he really is.

The songs that were already previously available on "So Far Gone" are a winner and the new songs don't bring Drake down off the high cloud he's already on.

Nelly pushes crossover so far on a few of these tracks a few of his more hardcore fans may be turned off, but frankly since this is a concept album songs like "N Dey Say" are what I expected from "Suit."

It’s remarkable how these beats all have their own feel yet still work as a cohesive whole. The well-worn joke in hip-hop circles that Nas picks bad beats is effectively wiped. Nas is, in his own words, reincarnated, but with an additional self-awareness that is more grounded than his last few performances. There’s no cryptocurrency chatter or verses shoehorned into trap instrumentals. There are no skips, this is simply good ol’ Nas distilled.

Stop wasting time and go to the store to get Rising Down right now.

We've come to expect nothing less than near-perfection from K.Dot and he comes pretty damn close on his most recent effort.

If there’s any album to compare this to, it would have to be The Clipse’s recently released “Let God Sort Em Out”, as both are similar and uncompromisingly raw in sound and content. But “Alfredo 2” differs in style and tone. The album’s edge? It has a narcotic swagger with flash and no polish, as well as being a very welcome and well-timed contemporary follow-up.

Gibbs and Alc show no signs of allowing the credits to roll.

Through over 70 minutes of Lamar’s latest, every facet of life for the young Compton rapper is held up to the light. Love, pain, hope, despair, triumph, defeat, it’s all there. ... He’s a rapper who understands rapping is more than just a good beat, a good punchline, or a good vocal tone. He’s blessed to have all of that but he takes the platform he got from it and makes art that will last a lifetime.

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

"Beauty and the Beat" is a rare, valuable record that channels two markedly different types of music into a new one, a collage of sounds that hasn't been heard in a very long time.

B4.DA.$$ is a step in the right direction in New York hip-hop getting the attention and validation its long been denied.

Madlib produced albums tend to only get better with age, and I don't expect Pinata to be an exception.

The strength of "A Sufi and a Killer," though, is the remarkable consistency with which this eclectic and experimental record holds itself together. This is an album in which beats and rhymes truly serve as the yin to each other's yang.

All in all, Dizzee hasn't gone all out to make an artistic masterpiece, but it doesn't make the slightest bit of difference.

There isn't a weak track on "Father Divine," and though some of Ladd's lyrical styling can be uninspired... the album is packed with solid material.

"Kingdom Come" is everything you expected.

Every time you turn the page to another chapter of "Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang" you get a pleasant surprise.

Brown's self-awareness of his situation doesn't seem to have made him alter his intake. At least it has allowed him to make an incredible album.

Atrocity Exhibition is a party rap album, a drug rap album, an emo rap album, and a post-punk album all rolled into one.

This is not RJD2's best work, but this record contains several stunning creations and very few disappointments. Aceyalone settles for too little, allowing his natural skill to carry him in the absence of true purpose, but his voice still weaves deftly throughout most of the album.

Even if the music isn't extraordinary, Nas himself is legendary on "Untitled" - and as long as racism is relevant, so is this album.

It's also among his best work and he raps with the passion and fury of a rapper on his first LP.

With strong lyricism, impeccable production, and a consistent tracklist-only "Hydromatic" and "Poppin'" lack the rest of the LP's highlights-DJ Quik has turned in another gem sure to keep lowrider stereos and headphones alike busy throughout the summer and beyond.

Talib Kweli keeps the level of discourse high throughout Gutter Rainbows, and it should come as a surprise that some references he makes will go right over your head (props if you knew who knew Yohji Yamamoto was or what the Bhagavad Gita is).

He's versatile enough in writing ability to cover any topic from somber to silly, he's clever enough to make what he has to say worth rewinding to catch, and he's not that bad behind the boards as a producer either

It's awfully hard to name a bad track on Trill O.G. anywhere.

The Solution is an album informed by Sigel's hustles and struggles that still manages to elevate beyond them to offer a broad appeal as the self-described "fat boy on a sucker free diet" puts out the best gangster rap Philadelphia has seen since the heyday of Schoolly D--except that Sig' is on a level now D could never touch.