Woy's Album Reviews.

[Woy]

You should review that Miguel album. Curious what you think about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byQu6...eature=related

I heard a few songs off of it and enjoyed them, but not enough to check the entire project out. I'll possibly do that soon.

[Woy]

1.) First 48 | 2 - 2.25
- A lot of cringe-worthy lines (I'm on point, like a pyramid) but the beat is nice.
2.) Crazy | 1 - 1.25
- CB goes all Rick Ross style on the hook.
3.) Freaky I'm Iz (ft. Kevin McCall, Diesel & Swizz Beatz) | 2 - 2.5
- Horrible hook, but another nice beat.
4.) Body on Mine (ft. Se7en) | 1 - 1.5
5.) Spend It All (ft. Se7en & Kevin McCall) | .75 - 1
6.) Private Dancer (ft. Se7en & Kevin McCall) | 1
- The female voice (I assume that's Se7en) is trying way too hard.
7.) 100 Bottles (ft. Se7en) | .25 - 1
8.) Leave the Club (ft. Joelle James) | 2.25 - 3
9.) Real Hip Hop #4 (ft. Kevin McCall) | 1 - 1.5
10.) Your Body | 1
11.) Ladies Love Me (ft. Justin Beiber) | 1
- Biebs BODIES Breezy. *laughs*
12.) Real Hip Hop #3 | 1 - 1.25
13.) Real Hip Hop (ft. Kevin McCall) | 1
- I hate that CB got 9th Wonder beats.
14.) Snapbacks Back (ft. Tyga) | .25 - 1
- Awful doesn't begin to describe this song or the new movement.
15.) The Best Yo | 1 - 1.5
16.) Marvin's Room (Remix) (ft. J. Valentine, Dawn Richard, Se7en & Kevin McCall) | 2.75 - 3
- I was actually enjoying this more than I thought I would, but Kevin McCall completely threw that out the window. Still a highlight on the tape.
17.) 100% (ft. Kevin McCall) | .5 - 1
18.) Last | 2 - 2.75
19.) Sweetheart | 1 - 1.25
20.) Strip (ft. Kevin McCall) | 1 - 1.5
21.) Yoko (ft. Berner, Wiz Khalifa & Big K.R.I.T.) | 4
- K.R.I.T. is just dirty behind the boards.

Overall: 1.50/5

Brief Notes:
- This is about as awful as I thought it would be. "Yoko" will be in rotation though...it's a nice banger.

[Woy]

1.) Well Done 2 | 1.5 - 2
- "Who's there? Dez nuts in your face." Ugh.
2.) Snapbacks Back (ft. Chris Brown) | .25 - 1
3.) I'm Done | 1
4.) T Raww | 2
- A cabbage patch kids reference? Wow. Marion Barber shoutout is funny now.
5.) I'm On One | 2 - 2.75
6.) Bring It Back | 3 - 3.25
7.) Pussy Talkin | 3
8.) Rack City | 2 - 2.25
9.) Bitches Ain't Shit (ft. YG & Nipsey Hussle) | 1 - 1.75
- Annoying hook.
10.) Money, Liquor (ft. Gudda Gudda) | 1 - 1.25
- Why don't other people get this beat?
11.) Yonkers | .75 - 1
- No one can rock this beat like Tyler.
12.) LovaGain | 1

Overall: 1.57/5

Brief Notes:
- Tyga just sounds so forced and all his punchlines are cliche and stale as hell. Not to mention, he flow-jacks in about every song when it's better to make your own song out of someone else's beat. Just not a fun tape or artist to listen to.

[Woy]

Only reasons I listened to the previous two tapes is because I needed something to make me laugh + I wanted more bad stuff on my RYM list to balance it out and give it more depth. I feel like it's too top-heavy at this point, so the last two tapes will help bring that down.

[BrntO4Life]

Cities Aviv review?

[G-men]

It's a sad day in the rap game when Justin Bieber outraps somebody. Chris Brown should be forced into retirement.

[Woy]

Cities Aviv review?

Have about half of it rated, will get to the other half tomorrow. I'd do it now but I work soon.

[dell71]

Just wanted to say these reviews are on point like a pyramid :-)
TXT8026/T05_0 UP.Browser/6.2.3.2 (GUI) MMP/2.0

[Woy]

Next full review will be The Weeknd's new mixtape, Thursday. I'll make sure that doesn't erase like my Watch The Throne review.

Speaking of WTT...that, Cities Aviv, RED and Wale's new tape will all get the RYM treatment and be up relatively soon. Looking to knock out a lot of these tomorrow.

[Woy]

1.) No Church In The Wild (ft. Frank Ocean) | 5
- I love that damn guitar. Great verses by Jay and 'Ye and a powerful hook by rising star Frank Ocean makes this one of the album's highlights.
2.) Lift Off (ft. Beyonce) | 2 - 2.5
3.) Niggas In Paris | 4 - 4.5
- Lil B meets The Throne (I hate listing them like that, by the way). I just want to cook to this.
4.) Otis (ft. Otis Redding) | 4.5 - 5
5.) Gotta Have It | 3.75 - 4
6.) New Day | 5
7.) That's My Bitch | 3.25 - 4
- Q-Tip brings some old school flavor with this beat.
8.) Welcome To The Jungle | 3 - 3.5
9.) Who Gon Stop Me | 4 - 4.25
10.) Murder To Excellence | 5
11.) Made In America (ft. Frank Ocean) | 4 - 4.75
12.) Why I Love You (ft. Mr. Hudson) | 3 - 3.75
13.) Illest Motherfucker Alive | 5
- Everyone really hates the three-minutes of silence here. *laughs*
14.) H•A•M | 4 - 4.5
- I'm not the only one who feels this way, but this song feels different than when it first dropped in January. I can't explain it.
15.) Primetime | 4 - 4.25
16.) The Joy (ft. Curtis Mayfield) | 3.75 - 4

Overall: 4.13/5

Brief Notes:
- I've heard that this album has no subject matter besides Jay and Kanye saying "we're rich, here's a bunch of stuff we have that you can't afford". First off, the album's called Watch The Throne - you should expect the two artists to spit about their riches to show they're the best in the game. But in a lot of tracks (i.e. "Murder To Excellence", "Made In America", "Who Gon Stop Me"), the subject matter is more geared towards celebrating black power. "New Day" is probably the best song for everyone crying about subject matter, as the two heavyweights have conversations with their unborn children. Instant classic like many were making it out to be? No. Album of the Year candidate? No. Absolutely awful like others were making it out to be? No. It's a very good album, plain and simple.

[Woy]

1.) Dr. Dre Intro | 3 - 3.25
2.) The City (ft. Kendrick Lamar) | 4.75 - 5
- I love Kendrick's hook, but his verse is a little overhyped. Game sounds really hungry and says some ridiculous things, but it doesn't ruin a great song.
3.) Drug Test (ft. Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg & Sly) | 3
4.) Martians vs. Goblins (ft. Lil' Wayne & Tyler, The Creator) | 4
- Nice verse by Tyler.
5.) Red Nation (ft. Lil' Wayne) | 2 - 2.5
- Zombie Nation is great by itself, it never needs to be sampled.
6.) Dr. Dre 1 | 2.5 - 3
7.) Good Girls Go Bad (ft. Drake) | 4 - 4.25
- Steve McNair reference. *sheds tear* Drake's verse is cool but the ninja turtle line is so cringe-worthy.
8.) Ricky | 4.25 - 5
9.) The Good, The Bad, The Ugly | 3.25 - 4
10.) Heavy Artillery (ft. Rick Ross & Beanie Sigel) | 4
- Beanie with one of the best guest spots on the album.
11.) Paramedics (ft. Young Jeezy) | 3.75 - 4
12.) Speakers On Blast (ft. Big Boi & E-40) | 3 - 3.5
- I don't like Game's 3000 impression.
13.) Hello (ft. Lloyd) | 2.25 - 3
14.) All The Way Gone (ft. Mario & Wale) | 3.25 - 4
15.) Pot Of Gold (ft. Chris Brown) | 4.5 - 5
- Again, Chris Brown may be trash from an album standpoint now, but he can still kill a hook every now and then.
16.) Dr. Dre 2 | 2.75 - 3
17.) All I Know (ft. Lu Breeze)| 4
18.) Born In The Trap | 4 - 4.75
19.) Mama Knows (ft. Nelly Furtado) | 3.5 - 4
- Where did Game find Nelly Furtado at? She's been in hiding for years.
20.) California Dream | 4
21.) Dr. Dre Outro | 3

Overall: 3.64/5

Brief Notes:
- There's some really good songs on here, but overall The Game just doesn't entertain me as a MC like he did during The Documentary days. His impressions of the featured artists gets old after a while too. The production throughout the album however is incredible and really stands out.

[Rudi]

As always, good reviews. Im interested to see what you think of my boys mixtape.

[Miggy]

please review:

Brad Paisley - This Is Country Music
Justin Moore - Outlaws Like Me

[Woy]

The Weeknd - Thursday

"...but on Thursday, make sure you are thirsty."

I can speak on behalf of many music fans that when it came to The Weeknd's newest mixtape, Thursday, we weren't just thirsty for it - we were parched. Just a few weeks after hearing the universally acclaimed, out-of-nowhere release House of Balloons, my hype level for the next chapter of the three-part trilogy was through the roof.

Besides some tweets in May saying Thursday was coming soon along with two "singles" in "Rolling Stone" and "The Birds Part 1" released within the same timeframe, there wasn't much news behind the mysterious mixtape. Abel Tesfaye did, however, host his first concert in early July and later performed at OVO Fest on the 31st. But once the lights turned off at Molson Amphitheatre, he went back into hiding and the release date of Thursday was still unknown.

Then on the 16th, Abel simply tweeted "this one..." and everyone knew what was finally coming soon. Two days later (obviously on a Thursday), the highly anticipated mixtape was released on his website and just shortly after, the site crashed and many people - including me - were searching for alternate links. In just the first day alone, Thursday was downloaded over 180,000 times; an incredible number for a still relatively unknown artist.

When I first listened to House of Balloons, I enjoyed it but nothing blew me away. Eventually a few more listens made me like it a lot, and continued listens over the past months made it one of my favorite projects of 2011. Unlike the first mixtape though, Thursday hit me square in the face during my first listen.

The entire tape sort of plays off "Wicked Games" from House of Balloons. Still heartbroken from a previous relationship, the nine-track project unravels as a story, documenting Abel's process of finding girls to hook up with. However, the story's antagonist doesn't provoke the same feelings that the other girls do.

In the opener "Lonely Star", Abel meets what could be his next hook up. The girl doesn't have much of a past because of a lack of relationships, so Abel takes her under his arm and shows she can have whatever she wants. It's a ploy to sleep with her however and after she gets some drugs in her system, she starts bringing his plan to life.

"Welcome to the other side," he cries out in "Life of the Party" - a signal of the transformation the girl has made since the previous song. She's starting to become exactly what Abel wanted her to be; from the innocent, lonely girl to a drug-induced whore. The title track "Thursday", reiterates that she's not different from the rest and that his feelings for her drastically change from day-to-day.

The Drake-assisted "The Zone" is not only my favorite song from the tape, but it also reiterates the fact that she isn't anything more than a hook up to him. Their first time together is more influenced by the codeine he's been drinking than actual feelings. Drake's verse doesn't necessarily tie in with Abel's story but it fits the theme of the tape and closes out the song perfectly.

Abel feels the need to remind the girl in "The Birds Part 1" that falling in love with him will be useless, cause he's done this exact thing plenty of times. But her response in "The Birds Part 2" is that she already fell in love with him and wants him to wait till she loses her feelings for her before he inevitably cheats on her.

But with her statement "it won't be long till I fall out of love" from the previous song, she insists that she doesn't want this to explicitly end. "Gone" is like "The Zone", piecing together their next hook up. The possible shifting of his intentions show up here when he allows her to drink the codeine that he values so much.

"Rolling Stone" shows Abel at his most vulnerable state. The morning after the party, he starts questioning his feelings and thinks he might actually want this girl to love him. He's worried about how the ineluctable fame will have women want him for that reason and not for himself. Confusion sets in at the end though because he is still unsure of what he wants. One line he's singing "I'll be different", the next is "I think I'll be different" and then finally "I hope I'm not different."

And that brings us to the tape's closer, "Heaven or Las Vegas". It briefly touches on a lack of a father figure in Abel's life, but the main theme of this song is how he feels like a king or a god because he has everything he wants in life: drugs, girls and friends. Whether this is like heaven to him or is more like Las Vegas remains to be seen (or rather, heard).

Comparing this to House of Balloons is tough, because they're both incredible mixtapes and some of the best projects in 2011. House of Balloons has better highlights ("What You Need", "Wicked Games") but Thursday is a more complete listen. The production is just as good, if not better as its counterpart and nothing seems out of place. The story flows beautifully and is also relatable in many aspects (one aspect not being the hardcore drug use found throughout the tape).

It seemed impossible at first, but The Weeknd did it. He somehow topped an absolutely brilliant debut and as of August 26th, this is your 2011 project of the year.

1.) Lonely Star | 4 - 4.25
2.) Life of the Party | 3.5 - 4
3.) Thursday | 4.5 - 5
4.) The Zone (ft. Drake) | 5
5.) The Birds Part 1 | 4.75 - 5
6.) The Birds Part 2 | 4.25 - 5
7.) Gone | 4.75 - 5
8.) Rolling Stone | 5
9.) Heaven or Las Vegas | 3 - 3.75

Overall: 4.49/5

[Cody]

Easily one of your best reviews.