It's an album with no direction, no cohesion and a striking lack of energy.

From the dance beats to the cross-pollination of guest artists to the old pop samples, Global Warming is a big dumb album that feels so calculated and market-tested that it is not much fun to listen to.

I Am Not a Human Being II flashes moments of brilliance, but it's far from his best work.

Home might be a bust as an instrumental hip-hop album, but it is very successful as a piece of well-crafted electronic music.

The Solution doesn't differ from the previous instalments at all. If you're a fan of either artist then it is certainly worth picking up.

There are also some genuine standout tracks, and all in all, A$AP Rocky and his team deserved the critical and commercial acclaim that will inevitably flood their way.

The fact that he duplicates his melodic inflections from previous albums in detail shows just how formulaic his music has become.

It's a decent but underwhelming album, and one that inspires apathy more than adoration or disgust.

Reloaded is a brilliant album but it is one that requires a certain mood.

Most poeple probably have those two tracks ["Love Sosa" and "I Don't Like"], and there isn't anything else on here that warrants buying this or taking the time to find a torrent of it.

There's at least one cringeworthy line in nearly every song.

It seems cliche to say it, but Trouble Man: Heavy Is The Head has a little bit for everyone.

He's an unusual flavor, but one that should still be considered a delicacy--even if it just might be bad for you.

There's far more good here than bad, but there's definitely a sense of familiarity to Diamond in the Ruff.

This isn't an immediate album. It's one that will take a few listens, but your patience will be rewarded.

To be honest, this just doesn't really feel like a Game album--there's a distinct lack of drama, of real hyperbole, of genuine excitement. It tends to come across as a resume.

While O.N.I.F.C. doesn't break new ground musically for Wiz, certainly not lyrically at least, his flight won't be grounded any time soon.

Wu-Block isn't a necessity, not for the Wu, not for the Block, not for hip-hop, not for the fans. And yet while it may be nothing more than a stopgap for all involved, it makes sense, not in theory but de facto.

It's about as weird and wonderful as you'd expect from a guy who looks like he's been living on a commune for the past ten years.

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

It is most definitely worth your time, money and investment and whilst the Re-Up section isn't particularly mind-blowing, it is definitely an intelligent addition that rectifies certain initial errors

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

What makes this record successful, is exactly what Lupe refused to do on "The Great American Rap Album:" make enjoyable songs first and spread a message second.

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.

As a sequel to "The Greatest Story Never Told" some people will feel that it's not as good as the original, but as for this reviewer Saigon is still that dude who has something to say that's worth hearing.

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

He may be young and he may like to have fun, but he's also gotten depths of thoughtfulness that you don't have to dig deep for before they shine.

Ill Manors, depressing, blunt and provocative, fulfills one of rap music's most noble tasks--to touch the sore spots.

Until The Quiet Comes is another excellent album by one of the most interesting producers out there.

The Odd Future fam needs better quality control to stay relevant in 2013 and beyond.

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.

Napalm is remarkably focused, not forsaking the established Xzibit sound but neither rehashing it.

Ali is a mess of contradictions, but his latest effort proves how well those contradictions work together. Mourning In America is another amazing album by Ali, hip-hop's best street preacher.

Making an album is a team game, and the end product isn't big enough, not quite as daring or bold as we may well have expected.

The biggest fault of Cruel Summer may be that it lacks a unifying voice or vision.

However challenging or confusing his rhymes can be, the songs still work with their combination of banging beats, rich lyricism, and twisted humor.

The debut was unexpectedly good and remains a classic. The official sequel to it was EXPECTED to be good and it is.

It's a historical artifact on an otherwise up-to-date album, one which is more important now that hip-hop needs a refresher on the essence of skills and the value of balancing the materialistic with the intellectual.

Antibalas' latest preserves the musical history of Fela Kuti, and is a hell of a good time.

This is, quite handily, so much of precisely "what is wrong with hip hop today"--tidily sequenced into an hour of mind numbing idiocy.

While the music is consistent and fairly unique in its murkiness, it's not particularly compelling and is a tad stale.

A mature performance over sleek, fresh production makes Life's Quest a pleasure.

Most of Let It Go is solid, but there are some skippable tracks.

Any fans of mainstream hip hop, probably wouldn't touch this with a 20 foot pole. But fans of Def Jux, Anticon, even some Rhymesayers will definitely see the appeal of Geti's lyricism and storytelling.

This album [is] unabashedly fun and very easy to listen to.

channel ORANGE is filled with brave music.

Apart from these misgivings [middle-core sequencing issues and "Nasty" not making the grade], it must be said that Nas has truly delivered.

"The Stoned Immaculate" is a perfect 2012 example of what I call hip-hop's Marijuana Mood Music era. Beautiful production through [sic] results in a gentle buzz, a mellow aural high that's relaxing and refreshing.

Buy it, enjoy it, and forget it. It's a fun bit of fluff.

It's clearly a release intended for hardcore Odd Future fans.

There are enough songs with worthwhile beats and guests to hold this album together to some degree, and depending on whether or not you like Flocka's lyrical style will be the degree.

The inspiring message that is clearly part of the appeal is still buried under too much empty rap rhetoric.

The problem is that it's just too light on hip-hop, and too close to the other experimental work they've already done in other side projects.

Rugby Thompson is one of those hard albums to critique in that as hip-hop it is inoffensive, and yet when it comes to pushing the boundaries of what the art and music could be there's literally nothing you could point to as innovative or revolutionary.

With so many albums in his volumnious catalogue, it's neither the best nor the worst, but a passable experience with intriguing beats and rhymes is all anybody can ask for from this eclectic eccentric of hip-hop.

In the end, I think that long time fans of Big K.R.I.T. will find the album to be well put together, but they'll still be left wanting just a bit more.

The end result is an album that is as unsuccessful as it is daring.

If you even have the least inkling of how funky giving Oh No "unlimited access" to the archives of Rudy Ray Moore would be, I think you realize how enjoyable it would be to let him loop these beats and cherry pick his favorite emcees to flow over them.

It is prime El-P, deep, heavy, funny, and banging all at the same time.

Whatever genre you want to label Dedication as, it is a remarkable album.

It's easily one of the best albums of the year so far, and has the sound and feel of a classic.

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."

Despite the superficial trappings of Strange Clouds his talent still breaks through the atmospheric turbulence and shines down on the listener.

This is gritty, grimy, hardcore hip-hop, as nasty as it wants to be.

The final installment is arguably the best of the three.

Regrettably though Soil 2 is a little more uneven than the last installment.

Ultimately the first edition of The Block Brochure is almost exactly what one could expect from an E-40 album, and if you already knew his steelo going in that's good news.

He's well-produced, well-connected, and well-forgettable.

The strength and the weakness of the Odd Future crew is that Tyler does stand out from the rest of the Wolf Gang, and in many ways.

Despite the many cooks involved in this project, it maintains a sonic and lyrical cohesiveness.

A missed opportunity to progress.

Though this won't go down as De La Soul's best album, it is highly intelligent, artistic and features razor sharp lyrics making it arguably Posdnuos and Dave's most musically ambitious project yet.

"Subject: Matter" is a strong EP. Homeboy Sandman proves himself to be one of the most nimble, unique MCs out there.

You can never really get a sense of what Q is or what he wants to be.

It's the sound of a composer showing just what can be done with a sampler in the right hands. Hip-hop producers should take notes.

Shabazz Palaces created an album that is deep, dense, cryptic, hypnotic, and beautiful in its own freaky way.

Personal, heartfelt lyrics and soulful production have been key factors in K.R.I.T. building the following that he has amassed up to this point in his career, and this time around he's coming with much of the same.

This is a clear and definitive evolutionary improvement from his solo debut on "No Introduction," which is all a listener or review could have really asked for.

This isn't an album of 1990's styles brought to 2012 - these are contemporary beats and rhymes that can hang with anything else coming out on the scene

It certainly doesn't reach the catchy levels of Ross' biggest hits on most songs, but sounds good enough to have been decent album tracks.

The production and hooks propel the quality of these tunes as the lyrics could have been sharper at times.

The album is soulful, accessible, and devoid of the ignorance and shallowness that are trademarks of mainstream hip-hop.

At his best on "Evolve or Be Extinct", though, he reaches a pleasing mixture of understated beats and slice-of-life rhymes that are occasionally profound. At his worst, songs like "Scar" have neither beats nor rhymes I ever want to hear again.

Live Love A$AP is compelling but wildly uneven in execution.

Thanks in large part to the beats and the guest appearances, and in small part to Jeezy's frank delivery and raspy voice, it leans more toward the former [enjoyable] than the latter [obnoxious], leading me to give this album a cautious thumbs up.

Ultimately I have two complaints about Blue Slide Park which in the grand scheme of things may be minor.

Radioactive is a mixed bag that has some outstanding tracks, while others fail from a lack of execution particularly in the production and hook department.

If one can express disappointment in undun, it's that it sets out to tell a story and tells it well, but delivers a short story or a novella where fans of The Roots would have undoubtedly preferred a full length novel.

If you want the T-Pain you know and love rEVOLVEr delivers that in spades--but he doesn't really EVOLVE at all.

There are some other strong tracks on this album, including Santigold's guest spot on "Car Song," and "Energy," which sounds like a lost Talking Heads song. There are also several that are either forgettable or downright bad.

Overall, it's hard to find much fault with The Wonder Years, and it's remarkable how cohesive it feels given that it's a compilation album.

Well Done is a shining example of what collaborative albums should be.

Even though "Volcanic Sunlight" sounds explosive and blinding, it turns out to be quite warm and inviting...It's a pleasant if at times uneven experience.

It's wholly derivative, self-pitying emo rap that owes everything in its essence to Drake, Weezy, Cudi, and Kanye. That said, Glover is an incredibly compelling and talented rapper.

"Occasion" is an abomination by all standards, but that it comes from such a respected entity as Kidz in the Hall makes it even more inexcusable.

This is a truly throwaway fast food album. You will enjoy it for a while, and in a year, I guarantee that you will not be listening to it, save for a few songs (such as "Legendary" and "Ambition").

He's never too sappy, too apologetic, or too mean-spirited.

But make no mistake, it's an album that displays growth, maturity and improvement in almost every respect - he's certainly becoming a versatile and engaging artist.