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

Though Bronson does try new things on his first major-label outing, he still includes his characteristic lyrical qualities along with elements from past releases. In a sense, he's re-introducing himself.

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

Everybody Down may try to tackle too much in its 48-minute run time, but even if the story isn't always coherent, the emotions of the characters shine through.

Even with Black Milk's limits as a rapper, If There's a Hell Below is a solid album. Black Milk nails the line between being retro and forward-thinking, between street and backpack, between nostalgia and honesty.

As tracks like the apt Andre Harris produced finale “Wings” show, EarthGang can fly on their own without any comparisons. They are as much R&B as hip-hop and for them it’s an ideal match.

The end result sure looks promising from the moment you hit play, with over an hour of music and 18 tracks to look forward to, the kind of full length project all those [Kickstarter] backers have demanded.

Even his non-album singles are bangers, which is what makes it more insulting that we had to wait all these years for them to be compiled together into one “package” for our perusal. Better late than never though.

Her debut is musically brilliant--if a bit samey.

Mozzy’s greatest strength as a writer is clear intimacy. Every time he spits a verse, I feel like he’s talking to me one-on-one with a cigar in hand and his posse surrounding him. There’s wisdom attached to his words because he’s been through it all. ... Mozzy still carries demons, but there are indeed shimmers of happiness percolating throughout some of these passages.

The first overwhelmingly happy Atmosphere record.

Maybe the highest praise one can bestow on Pilot Talk is that it is a real album, not really fit for phone speakers or headphones but best enjoyed on a home or car system, where Ski's warm beats and Spitta's hazy vocals can fill the space.

This is The Roots band, jamming their way through the wealth of protest soul that rocks and rolls, and obviously a crooner like the Grammy award winning John Legend is far more important to capture that soul and make it his own.

Even the weaker of Ghost albums tend to be relatively strong compared to some of his peers, both in and outside of the Wu, and The Big Doe Rehab is no exception.

If you felt Roc's previous albums were too Roc-heavy, this is the ideal album to ease you in to his brand of excess rap. Yet for somebody that held his previous two albums in such high regard, it's a little bit disjointed, unpolished and dare I say it, scruffy

It is the right combination of introspective and funky. It makes these long, endless days and weeks much more manageable. If you need something both banging and relaxing, Shabazz Palaces got you covered.

The problem here is that not only is no progress made, Weekend at Burnie's might just be an artistic regress.

Francis is on a level where even next shit is two steps behind.

It is just so much plain fun to bump loud, sing-a-long to and back it up on various people. Wicked.

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

The final installment is arguably the best of the three.

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.

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.

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."

Sour Soul isn't the best album in Ghostface's discography, but it is a fine effort.

While the tracks never reach and identity outside their own samples Greg does breath fresh new life into them and make things you've probably heard a thousand times, exciting again.

A$AP's charisma and finesse mostly compensate for his shortcomings as a lyricist. That, combined with the trippy heaviness of Danger Mouse's production, make "A.L.L.A." an album worth spending time with, even dead sober.

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.