tdotraza's TOP ALBUMS

“Jay and 'Ye set out to separate themselves from the rest of the Hip Hop nation. They succeeded. This album really sounds like nothing else out there in the genre, just like MBDTF. Dubstep in Hip Hop can't be new I'm sure, but has it really been done well? Even the four bonus tracks are better than most tracks on people's albums. We had heard two of them, but "Illest Motherf*cker Alive" and "Primetime" are pretty dope too. While I'm randomly jumping around topics, I'll add that the end of "Why I Love You" is clearly dedicated to Sigel/Cons. And they bring out the best in the people they surrounded themselves with. Swizz has TWO beats on the album and they're easily his best ever. I gotta add I fucking love "Murder to Excellence." Before I played it, I thought the track name was silly but then, well, I played it. They actually transitioned from a track dedicated to Black murder to Black excellence without really losing the first topic. Personally, we need a little more social/political Kanye in the midst of Superman Kanye. Damn, that's pro. Oh, and the transition to this track from "Who Gon' Stop Me"? Sick. Favourie tracks: Murder to Excellence, New Day, The Joy, No Church in the Wild, and N*ggas in Paris. 4.5/5”

“@DJ Baer: Slow down there. What he essentially said was that Bieber is the opposite of DMX in terms of hooliganism. Meaning, he's harmless and you won't see his face on TV as an example of what the kids shouldn't be, which is what Bieber SHOULD be at the age of 16. That's not an insult in the slightest to me. Bieber is innocent/a goodie-kid.”

“What happened to not listening to music you do not like? If you're not going to open up and give the artist a chance while listening, you're just listening to find hate worthy material, so you aren't even really listening so much as skimming for ammo. This album is ultimately what you'd expect from Ross. Larger than life, just like the man. The lyrics aren't Earth-shattering, so we can't give him that one, but we can give him points for outdoing the people he's often grouped with- he does deserve SOME credits in his rhymes, they're not as bad as people would like to believe- "Free Mason" being a good example. "Tears of Joy" has the type of overwhelming soul you'd expect from Cee-Lo, and it works so damn well you can't help but love it. "Live Fast, Die Young" I LOVE because it sounds like College Dropout material, and sure Kanye's beat and verse is the best part, Ross makes his presence known, which is his special ability. He has -presence-. Which is what he needs for the giant he's made out of himself. Note: Shame the Raphael Saadiq was underwhelming. I had hopes for that track. Also would've liked "Mafia Music Pt. 2" to be on this. Ross really delivered there. 4/5”

“Best way to say it is a 3.5 from the The Roots is a normal artist's/band's 5. 4 from me; going to be playing it a lot but maybe not as much as some of the other releases this year, which isn't an insult to this album. It's just a wonderful year for music. Favourite tracks are "The Day", "Radio Daze" and the title-track. Not really any bad tracks on here at all, though. It's the type of music only The Roots can produce, as Nathan said. Legends in the finest form.”

“Posting my "review" later (tomorrow, lol), but now I'll just say "His Dream" is my favourite track.”

“I love this review. It's genius, just like Joe's lyrics on Padded Room. Joe put everything into his lyricism here. Production is meh, but not bad enough to make this album bad on any levels. I'll just agree with what TO- Jordan said, as he took everything I had to say. Top Six; "Pray For Me", "In My Sleep", "Adrenaline", "Family Reunion", "Happy Holidays" (we need an actual Christmas album from Hip Hop, just feel the need to say that right here), "Now I Lay". That order.”

“I've changed my mind. This is just as much as a classic as Konvicted, just two different angles from Akon. This album is truly hypnotic, and the oft-mentioned passion is easy to hear. From the final verse on Be With You, the sad, yet optimistic lyrics on Keep You Much Longer ("as long as I got eyes, I'll have a sight for you"), the harmonic Against The Grain, powerful Birthmark and Freedom, or the above excellent production on EVERY track, Akon's soul lives in this album. That's music. Redone top six; Birthmark, Freedom, Against The Grain, Holla Holla, Troublemaker and Over The Edge. I also love Be With You and Keep You Much Longer.”

“I'm with MichaelHannah here 100%! And yes, I'm a few weeks late. Listen closing everyone, you can almost here Kanye crying out. That's just a sad, and if we, as a people, that claim to know our music, can't break down our walls, before turning to ask everyone else to do the same, we shouldn't even talk. We should just sit quietly with a song on repeat, living a quiet I've had enough of some of this nonsense. Two things I posted back a while ago; "I have NO problem with Kanye West using the autotone! He could do a whole album with it, I'd still probably love it." & "If anyone "killed hip hop", then it's gotta be the hatred against the evolution." That's statements stand still today, and listening to one of the greatest albums of this year (I'd say 2nd, after "Untitled", another album that had a lot of talk about it, and something you have to listen to with none of these "walls" around you), only strengthens it. The complaining about the autotune is 10x worse than the actual thing. I actually think "Say You Will" applies to a lot of this in a deep sense if you dig into it. Kanye's losing it, and here we are eating him alive. How sad... I think someone should send him "Last Call" off "College Dropout". I have a feeling that might help him, in some strange way... Just like with Common's album, I can still play this while listening to Kanye's last three albums. You aren't a fan of the artist if you can fall off of him or her so quickly. You don't "know" him or her if you claim that "this isn't him" or anything similar. "In Kanye's case, however, I think its different. At no point did he try to trick anyone into believing 808s was a rap album - from the beginning he said what he planned to do. I doubt he suckered you into buying his album under false pretense, so based on those grounds, its hard to buy into the 'lost respect for' angle. See what I mean?" AGREED. Top 6, I think I'll make this a habit; "Welcome To Heartbreak", "Street Lights", "See You In My Nightmares", "Paranoid", "Coldest Winter" and "Bad News". 5 out of 5.”

“Common is one of the greatest artists to ever breathe their soul out to the world. A true legend. So when I hear people complain about the album, KNOWING he was going to try something knew, I can't help but think they don't really know music, let alone Common. He's stayed with basically the same route this whole game, and wants to try something new so we shoot him down? It's like people are dying to prove we can be assholes if we really want to. 2008 has actually been the hardest year for artists to express themselves in new ways. It's like Obama & change only exists on the podium or something. Common has some slick stuff here, like "Punch Drunk Love", which with all the people listening to it, might be Common's first top 20 (not specifically Rap or Hip Hop/R&B) in a while (or so I believe?). "Gladiator" puts everyone's favourite rapper in place, and that place is 6 feet under the ground, where "Everywhere" is a smooth out-of-this-world sorta jam, and then "Sex 4 Sugar" is a complete failure. "What A World" screams Gnarls Barkley, and I guess from there the natural path is to go on to "Make My Day" (which just has way too much happening) a much better track, but not exactly a classic. Just, a few songs doesn't ruin the album. "Announcement", "Inhale" and "Changes" pulls a 360 on everyone who expected just straight party songs and has Common giving that lyrical mind munchies that people loved about him. His almost always happy attitude, his keen insight, his "for the people" code of ethnics, etc, is why we love Common. I guess I'll forever be hip hop's "BELIEVER"! Coming 09? I hope! And just because I'm currently flipping back to "Be", doesn't mean I'll never come back to bang "Universal Mind Control". I've had way longer stuff for all these albums I'm going up on, but bottling up for so long I've forgotten some of it. So, my Top 6, in the order; "Inhale", "Gladiator", "Announcement", "Punch Drunk Love (The Eye)", "Everywhere", and "Universal Mind Control". Note: Hell yea I'd read his review, Myztery. :P”

“KONVICT MUZIK!!! Pretty sick album, I still find it hilarious the album leaked due to iTunes a few weeks ago. Worth a buy, and it should shut up T-Pain's haters for a good while. "It Ain't Me" is Thr33 Ringz's version of "You're Not The Same", and it's got that same dope sound, just with a T.I. verse along with the Akon one. "Change" is surprisingly moving, though I honestly wish, for the first time, T-Pain dropped the vocoder, just for this song. That would've made it something else. That's the only moment I disliked it. "Can't Believe It", "Chopped N Screwed" and "Freeze" can get so damn catchy it's unbelievable. With Akon's "Freedom" coming out soon too (and that new single, "Troublemaker" is rather sick), I think it's that time of year again for Konvict... Lmao@"I don't need your sex, I masturbate" on "Therapy". The only thing I don't like is the lacking of "Silver & Gold", which a lot of people didn't like, but I loved. "The Ringleader Man" is a role T-Pain can play effectively too, with tracks like "Blowin' Up" and "Reality Show". "Phantom", the bonus disc track, is so unique it's amazing. Overall, this is def worth a buy.”