The Infamous Mobb Deep is a return to the roots of their artistic consciousness, substantiated almost 20 years ago, and with fine precision.

Despite the house and dance beats and Marc Anthony features, Pitbull is still a rapper, and a decent one at that. He has definite personality on the mic, a trained and well-executed flow and delivery, and an ear for a good club banger.

Using Wolf as a platform to let his imagination run wild while remaining accessible, Tyler, the Creator displays maturation on his own twisted terms.

On The WZRD, he spends most his time refining his formula or simply being lazy. Either way, it’s clear that Future is way too comfortable.

Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon offers a fleeting peek into the artist Pop would become—beyond Drill, beyond Brooklyn, beyond even the United States.

It’s a curious turn, but one that finds them as oddly whimsical and satisfying as ever.

Offset or no Offset, Quavo and Takeoff’s stylistic DNA holds steady. It’s home-grown. It’s theirs, and it’s as potent as ever.

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.

He’s let the high filter out more of the revelation, and it sounds like a more accessible piece of entertainment than his last. It’s not the call to arms some expected, but Ab-Soul is as convincingly conspicuous as he’s ever been.

With welcome to: OUR HOUSE, Slaughterhouse has somehow managed to improve upon its already-absurd skill set.

Longtime Swollen Members fans likely won’t raise an eyebrow, but the consistent horrorcore references are likely to turn off potential new fans that aren’t down with the macabre subject matter

Common has been delivering solid material for three decades, but this album can be chalked up as a mediocre comeback, not for lyrical ability. Rather, it’s for the lack of soul “by the pound” in the album’s soundscapes. It just doesn’t hold as much weight in his discography.

With Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1, Rap's resident Judo master of juxtaposition sounds inspired again, dishing out shifting dichotomies through a scattering of deliveries without encroaching on petulance.

Though their formula is simple, the pair takes precisely measured efforts to make sure each song remains true to their refined essence.

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.

With this sequel, Minaj transitions from innovator to adapter, producing a polished collection of songs that stick to the Rap trends that are hot right now, not quite living up to the expectations of the original, but still giving her fans a solid body of work that asserts her legacy.

King of Memphis has all the ingredients of a breakout debut album with 12 featureless tracks but it settles in as another conventional Dolph project.

There are 21 tracks on jammed with booming, mellow Atlanta trap flare and some inconsistency between bangers and filler tracks with similar minimalist, psychedelic soundscapes.

It's isn't exactly a new album or even an entirely new mixtape, but taken at face value, Fear of God II is a solid collection of tracks.

Girl On Fire pushes her superb writing skills forward without losing what makes Alicia Keys the artist she promised to be 11 years ago.

There are without doubt a few tracks on this album that could make it to your favorite ScHoolboy playlist but said “few” don’t outweigh the remaining dozen that fall flat on their blank face.

While the bulk of the songs can’t disguise their rush-job origins, tinges of Trap Boy Magic do spring up from time to time.

Aside from “Run Away,” none of the tracks on Bush are utter drag-and-recycle-bin drop material, the album is a surprising letdown from two legendary artists who have (literally) a platinum track record.

Musically, he is maturing before our very eyes.

Drake feeds his own ego and starves his humility. There are engaging moments scattered throughout, such as the subtle outro to “9” or dvsn’s stellar turn on “Faithful,” but from the content to the execution, Views is strangled by the 6ix God’s own delusions.

The Idol’s soundtrack narrowly avoids disaster thanks to a few good guests and captivating solo performances from its lead, but just like the show, it severely mishandles its women. Lily-Rose Depp has a decent enough voice but instead, she’s relegated to generic pop girl, while Suzanna Son doubles down on the Halsey effect to make her voice stand out.

There is still enough variety in styles that make it a successful conjuring. And, once there, the free-form melting pot of production and vocals continues to satisfy.

While the album doesn't necessarily reinvent the wheel, those with mainstream sensibilities that like metaphor-heavy rhymes with a strong dose of social commentary will be pleasantly surprised.