Nothing on par with the classics but he has plenty of moments where his strengths are showcased.

Meek understands his audience, they expect a monumental introduction, summer ready hits, sincerity and more hits. He does this all, with a bit of style and an abundance of swagger.

Vince sounds more alive on this album, that coldhearted monotone has found a bit of hope.

It may have been a little long for my liking, but that's a small price to pay for listening to something this remarkably unique.

The rapping isn’t the problem, it’s his singing and eccentric sounds that leaves me with Van Gogh thoughts.

A listen will be worth your time.

Not only does it reinforce that Earl is a capable lyricist, but that he’s growing his legs as a producer. It’s also an album where you can tell the artist found his voice, finally overcoming the pressures of expectation.

Ultimately, only time will tell if Dark Sky Paradise becomes the first Big Sean album that I like more than his mixtapes, but this one probably has the best chance yet.

The "album" feels like a bunch of random songs, some quality songs mind you, but still just a bunch of songs that don't add up to anything larger.

This is a good album by all accounts, but it's just not enough to free Joey from rap purgatory.

Kat Dahlia's My Garden is good music. Period.

The music on Black Messiah is quietly powerful, which is the most powerful form of power.

There's frankly very little chance I'd ever listen to this album again if I wasn't obligated to revisit it in a month via "1 Listen" rules, but Nicki's got her own lane and it's not a lane I'm going to roadblock.

Forest Hills Drive has enough twists and turns to inspire an almost schizophrenic stream of reactions.

There is very little to write home about here, and for the most part it feels very hastily made.

This isn't a great rap album, it's just a great album. Period.

This has the feel of a full, complete body of work, one embedded with nuances, themes and a larger, interwoven framework that nobody could digest in one listen.

From "Jeopardy" on, Run the Jewels 2 is uppercut after uppercut.

Paperwork is at its most compelling when it feels like he’s being the most autobiographical.

Absolutely none of the album is bad, but it's enough like Drake to make me feel like I might as well be listening to Drake, enough like The Weeknd to make me feel like I might as well be listening to Weeknd, etc. etc. etc.

There aren't many singers who have both the vocal ability and range of delivery to traverse a musical landscape that vast, but Brown does it all while impressively managing to maintain a real cohesion throughout X.

On the whole though, while it might not be a classic, Seen It All will go down in hip-hop history as yet another dope album from an artist who's had an enormous (although under-rated) impact on rap.

It feels like Wiz is mostly coasting through this album, giving his already loyal fans exactly what they'd expect from him and not much else.

These days, Soul’s money tree has blossomed and with it, expectations have grown and relationships and trust are harder to come by. But for now at least, Soul is in control.

For the most part, Common's been an almost staggeringly consistent presence in music for years, and then fittingly, his new album Nobody's Smiling, is as good as anything he's done.

It's an odd, disjointed album that, despite scattered high points, leaves one wondering what Thicke was thinking when he put it together. Paula Patton deserves better, and so do listeners.

The animal spin on Get Rich or Die Tryin’. 50 Cent attacks with that mindset on his 5th album, and it’s a solid entry in a very up and down career (in music at least).

The album is fun, enjoyable, and well-done.

Z is a mood piece, 10 homogenous tracks that breeze by and flow on a winning combination of sweet vocals, sweeter hooks, and the sweetest of melodies and instrumentals.

Future’s influence might not ever reach the same height as that famous duo’s, but efforts like Honest certainly dispel his consistent-hit-man-of-little-substance status (a la T-Pain).

The album might not be nearly good enough to launch him into any "classic" conversation, but it also not nearly bad enough to be viewed as a sign of his impending demise.

While his darker material seems unchanged by fame, it’s really his lighter, more radio-friendly material that gets taken to the next level on Oxymoron.

A well-produced, collective backdrop is the foundation of Cilvia’s creative world, but it is Rashad’s poetically penned, energetically delivered raps that gently tip the scale towards a point of well-rounded balance.

The album’s content is narrow, and while there are certainly no duds here, things do get a bit predictable as the album progresses. However, the constant non-sequiturs and familiar production doesn’t take a whole lot away from the overall value of the collection.

Influenced by what The Pharcyde did two decades ago, what Drake perfected a few years ago, and what many others have attempted since, Ink’s melodic tastes and rhyming style draws from all of these influencers. The problem is, he can’t quite charm like Wiz Khalifa, rhyme like Big Sean, or create art like Drake. Yet.

We’re clearly listening to one of the most purely talented artists of our generation working at her peak, or at least somewhere close.

The forward momentum shown on previous releases continues with Because the Internet. The jokes and gimmicks show up less often and in their place are introspective questions about himself, his relationships, and his family. Most of the time it works.

Knock Madness works best when Hopsin is either angrily fighting or humorously poking fun at some sort of ludicrosity.

At its best, the California singer offers sweet but forgettable elevator music.

He’s added a catchier more movie trailer-esque sound, what some call pop but I’ll just call Love the Way You Lie, but really, despite the upheavals in the world, despite his relapse and recovery from drug addiction, for better or worse Eminem at 41 is essentially the same artist as Eminem at 28-years-old.

The album is an amalgamation of his past trade and his current, and as is fitting for an album from a man whose past is as powdery white as a Colorado winter, it’s dope.

These are the songs that don’t initially blow you away, but you find yourself coming back to months later.

Overall, Kiss Land is a decent first full-length, but for the hype that The Weeknd had built up leading to this release, some (if not most) will say that it failed to meet expectations, especially compared to the incredible hype that surrounded his 2011 debut.

A charismatic, agile rapper good enough to have a long and successful career, but right now a place in rap’s Hall of Fame is still a stretch.

Lacking the dynamic between repulsive brutality and oddball humor that made Earl so uncomfortably riveting, Doris is both tonally fragmented and occasionally monotonous: an ocean of griminess broken up by earnest confessional rhymes.

While it would have been easy for Tech to overpower listeners with fast rhymes and monstrous beats, on the whole Something Else is an intensely serious and sometimes even quiet album than isn’t afraid to tackle issues more rappers wouldn’t come near.

He understands what a casual, top of the iTunes chart browsing fan is looking for, and what his dedicated fans who have been there since his bluesy beginnings are looking for. Blurred Lines mostly hits its mark when aiming for these two very different audiences, but the interspersing of slimy, pop songs with smooth as butter, tasteful ones comes off as awkward.

At 12 tracks long, Evolution may lack any real oomph or spectacle, but it also contains little filler, which is an achievement in today’s singles dominated, bloated albums.

Though at times she panders to the club a bit much, and doesn’t provide quite the depth that is expected of a self-titled album and an artist on her fifth go around, Ciara is filled with a fun batch of songs.

Has Jay-Z made another classic? Only time will truly tell, but my gut says MCHG will ultimately fall just short of classic status. Where does it rank among his now 15 albums? I’ve got it somewhere in the top third.

The Gifted is a collection of tracks from an unarguably talented emcee, but the point at which a collection of music becomes an album, a singular work with a focus and unity strong enough to truly make an impact, Wale still hasn’t reached that point.... In the meantime, we’re left with a quality album.

Overall, Born Sinner is an impressive effort.

Statik might not win the sprint, and isn’t really even running the same race, but Extended Play is definitely prepared for the marathon. You could pick this album up 5-10 years from now and it would have the same power as the day it came out.

There is no denying that with his knack for catchy melodies, descriptive songwriting, and excellent beat selection, Chance displays qualities on Acid Rap that have the potential to catapult him into superstardom. As a project itself, Acid Rap is one sweet, smooth musical journey that grapples with some serious topics in a pleasing manner.

IV Play finds Dream delving into more sounds and styles than ever before.

This is certainly his most sonically diverse album ever.

Overall, Kid Cudi is refreshing and lively thoughout Indicud, proving he can go off and experiment (like he did on WZRD), yet come back to the Day & Night Cudi we have all grown to know and love.

Wolf’s production features a more textured and subtle sound than we’ve ever heard before.

At a time when many of his rap peers are even more desperately changing their sound to stay relevant, Ghostface Killah is cementing his relevancy by diving even deeper into what always made him such a unique artist.

He’s obviously still capable of moments of greatness, but right now those moments are so dulled by surrounding mediocrity they’re becoming lost.

Timberlake and Timbaland (Timbalake?) are at their best when they rely more on organic soul than samples.

With Joe’s distinct style steering every track, No Love Lost is a much more cohesive and focused work, despite similar fluctuations [to Slaughterhouse's Welcome To: Our House].

In many ways Long.Live.A$AP is an album of the present.

Jesus Piece certainly isn't his best album, but if it ends up being his worst, then Jayceon's doing pretty damn good for himself.

T.I. is more lyrical than he often gets credit for, but it's his "swag" that truly separates him from the crowd, and Trouble Man is dripping with so much swag T.I. should bottle it and sell it.

For two solo albums now Andre Patton has not merely proved that he's a capable solo artist, he's helping to redefine what a hip-hop album can sound like.

O.N.I.F.C. isn't a great album, but it isn't lazy either.

Unapologetic is by no means a bad album, it'd be nearly impossible to combine the music industry's best songwriters, producers and Rihanna's charismatic delivery and not create quality music, but as an album Unapologetic has no real core, no real theme; unless you count "making hits" as a theme.

Ultimately, Trilogy is more of a sonic landmark then it is a new work.

We can safely assume that Dreams and Nightmares is the best Meek can possibly muster. And if this is indeed Meek's best, Meek's best is pretty good.

Maintaining the same "burn down the building" energy that your most loyal fans demand while not actually burning down the building is no easy task, but it's a fine line that MGK mostly manages to walk with success on Lace Up.

Ultimately, these songs and all of the songs on the album are stories, and to call Macklemore a storytelling rapper would be an understatement. He only tells stories, most often his own, it just turns out he's the kind of gifted storyteller that can keep you listening.

He's given us all he could possibly give us; an album worthy of being called a classic.

Payback sounds more like a catharsis, an extended musical middle finger filled with the kind of instrumental interludes, frenetic humor and unconstrained personality that will leave heads nodding, and Clear Channel running in the opposite direction.

There's no doubting that he's gone from a freshman to a full-fledged member of R&B's graduating class with Kaleidoscope Dream.

Music this good transcends chronology, so whether you're 85 (what up grandma?), just getting your driver's license or anywhere between, you're all welcome into This Generation.

It has its own moments of pop-leaning lightness, but there's more than enough revolutionary material here to leave the faithful satiated.

While everyone else is solid, there are no epiphanies, no "that artist is the next to blow!" moment that particularly deserves mention.

Based on a T.R.U. Story isn't a great album, but was anyone expecting a great album from 2 Chainz?

Songz isn't doing anything new, but when he's still delivering music this high quality it really doesn't matter that much.

At 16 tracks, 20 on the deluxe version, this album manages to work in more than a couple joints featuring some of the vicious rap hardcore fans were hoping for.

This is more than an album, this is a moment in music history. Enjoy it.

On his new album, Life Is Good, we're hearing the most locked-in Nas has been in years, and the results are awe-inspiring.

The truth is in the eye of the beholder, and with easily accessible albums like Fortune, there will continue to be a lot of eyes on Chris Brown.

In and of itself, Self Made 2 is a decent album that should find relative success.

Nothing on the album is groundbreaking and it won't go on to sell millions of copies, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a worthy piece of musical art.

Looking 4 Myself isn't a classic, it's just not, but until I hear better, it's the best R&B album of the year.

These are good songs, but we don't come to Waka for good.

If you're already a fan of Curren$y I have to imagine you'll at least enjoy adding Immaculate to the collection. And if you're not a Spitta fan there's a solid chance that Immaculate will, if not convert you to a full-fledged fan, at the very least respect the man.

Ultimately, Live From the Underground may not be K.R.I.T.'s best album yet, for more that'd be ReturnOf4Eva, but that's like saying Michael Jordan's fourth championship was the "best" of his six titles.

A few days of repeat spins now have revealed the album to have more depth and sustainability than I first suspected.

R.A.P. Music sounds like exactly no other album to come out this year.

Strange Clouds isn't perhaps as thrilling as Adventures, mostly because the thrill of the unknown is gone, but B.o.B.'s second album is superior in almost every respect.

While there's nothing revolutionary here, New Life is undoubtedly the work of a woman who's supremely comfortable in her own skin and own music.

The tracks do not really flow into each other or sound good in sequence, but individually some records do shine.

Here both the production and Nicki's delivery border on absurdist theater, at one point devolving into Nicki literally making noises.

K.R.I.T.'s created another album that will stand the test of time with 4EvaNaDay.

It has to be said though that the places where WZRD struggles most are the places where Dot and Cudi leave their hybrid sweet spot and try to go straight rock.