Scott Mescudi made an EP’s worth of material feel like an album, and he did it without surrendering his artistic integrity in the process.

The faults in Trendsetter come mostly because she relies on the star power brought by her guests but negates her ability to identify herself within the music.

All in all, the Wu remains palatable. They each have their own skillset they bring to the table, and all of them do so with varying degrees of grit on the album.

Magna Carta Holy Grail is where Jay-Z’s emceeing finally meets his “High Rap” ambitions. This is easily the best rhyming Jay’s done since American Gangster. But a sharp Shawn on the mic isn’t a surprise. What is a surprise is that this is the most cohesive project Jay’s put together since The Blueprint.

On what is Lil Wayne's ninth studio album, there's very little of the spontaneity you would expect from someone whose calling card is non-written, unrehearsed, free-associative rhymes.

Overall, The Buffet is a satisfying dish.

Even if Lil Boat 3 came out in a time without so much surface tension (is such a thing still possible?), it’d still feel sloppy and forgettable. The presence of personalities like Lil Yachty’s should be welcomed, but the execution still needs to be there.

Hardcore Taylor Gang fans will be happy to add this to their collection, but if you're expecting another round of Kush x OJ, this album will probably disappoint you.

Not only are the song structures disappointingly formulaic but the samples picked for the project rank as some of the laziest in recent Hip Hop Years.

Live From The Kitchen is just about the most predictable rap album you could ever listen to.

Violence Begets Violence may not draw too many new fans in, but it will serve to satisfy longtime supporters.

It attempts to do many of the same things [as Kilt II] sonically but falls short of the mark.

While Rubba Band Business: The Album is far from the iconic and groundbreaking material this man has created over his storied career, Juicy still champions a project fans of the Memphis rap legend can still find appetizing in a few morsels.

Demons Protected By Angels alludes to an artist self-aware enough to acknowledge his flaws, but the passivity of his music suggests he’d rather stew in the toxicity than work through it.

The title harbors on his crash-landed placement in the mainstream where he simply wants to co-exist while the music, albeit a times disjointed, makes up one of the most self-aware, socially conscious rap albums in recent memory, if not ever.

Established formulas of pandering singles and assembly line choruses aside, The Beautiful & Damned possesses enough serious assertiveness and classic Bay area slick talk to get burn well into 2018.

No Mercy takes T.I.'s recent experiences and frustrations, and effectively bottles them up into a potent and complete work.

The Meth Lab may be Method Man’s return to solo work, but without a true connection between the tracks the album feels more like a mixtape than an album, a string of songs that range from uninspiring to a reminder that Method Man was once one of Hip Hop’s elite.

While showing progression here, Chris Brown still is quite far from being the best man and artist that he can be. On Royalty, Chris Brown shows what happens when Peter Pan tries to grow up, but loves turning up in the club even more.

Although those untargeted croons and messy arrangements don’t allow ! to be a perfect album nor Trippie’s best work, the album is definitely worth a stream for listeners already sold on today’s genre-bending landscape.

There’s plenty of substance peppered in, but listeners will have to skip around to find it.

Blue Slide Park doesn't do anything to damage Mac's current status in the game, but it also doesn't do much to raise it.

In attempting to recreate his peak, he offers some familiar flows but mostly unimpressive lyrics that lean more toward grown-up nursery rhymes than his catchy, skillful couplets of days past.

This project is simply too long. The songs themselves are actually quite good in their own unique way but it’s difficult for anyone to jump around a 25-track album and get the most out of it. The Mansion would have been better off as a collection of mini condos.

The protocol for new DJ Khaled albums is as follows: expect nothing, delight in finding a few songs which clear that floor-high bar, tell your friends that Khaled is back, and forget about it for the rest of your life. His most recent effort, Khaled Khaled, falls directly in line with the rest of the world’s most profitable yet forgettable discography.

When you factor in all its dexterity, randomness and overall generality, it’s hard to truly believe NASIR was the album he had been cerebrally building these past six years. No, this isn’t “grown man Hip Hop” to bring balance back to whatever the younger generation of mainstream rappers are doing at the moment; nor will it ever reside in the upper echelon of the living legend’s catalog. It is, however, imperfect fine art.

Indicud is an ambitious project that Kid Cudi took a blind shot at, and while by no means does he completely exemplify his immortal identity, he certainly makes a compelling case nonetheless.

On the surface, it’s an overwhelmingly average album, and if you were to strip away all the unnecessary intermissions and segue ways, it’d probably venture into plus territory. As it is, however, it’s a futuristic skyscraper of an album that lacks the foundation to keep from collapsing, and the more you buy into his staggering concept, the more likely you are to come away disappointed.