Plies, 'Da REAList' (Big Gates/Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic)
Weezy: "What's a goon to a goblin?" Plies: "Ya moms!"
By Chris Ryan 01.16.09 6:02 PM
Known for his sparse, thug-and-R&B beats and filthy rasp, this Fort Myers, Florida native has established his own niche as a gangsta pinup with a fleeting street conscience. On the follow-up to his gold album Definition of Real, the beats are largely as punishingly blunt as the rhymes.
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Prodigy, 'Product of the 80's' (Dirt Class)
Mobb Deep’s dark mastermind reminisces from behind bars.
By Chris Ryan 10.14.08 3:39 PM
Product of the 80’s is the Queens rapper’s second release since he’s become a product of the New York State Department of Correctional Services (where he’s serving three and a half years on an illegal weapons charge). Recorded in conjunction with his bleak, keyboard-laden H.N.I.C. Pt.
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The Inquisition: Nas
Rapper talks Jay-Z, Bill O'Reilly, and about the controversy over his album title.
By Chris Ryan 06.20.08 12:15 PM
You gotta give Nas points for trying. After a year in which he caught flak from Bill O'Reilly for participating in a benefit, saw his nemesis turned label boss Jay-Z leave Def Jam, and shot a failed reality show with his wife Kelis, the 34-year-old Nasir Jones lost his long, contentious struggle to name his ninth album Nigger, replacing the title at the last minute.
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Ghostface Killah, 'More Fish' (Def Jam)
Another chapter of hip-hop's Great American Novel.
By Chris Ryan 12.28.06 4:00 AM
Though its title suggests a bunch of extras and alternate takes, More Fish is anything but an only-for-Ghostface-nerds toss-off. Released just nine months after the splatter-paint beauty of Fishscale, Tony Starks' second album of 2006 is as lean and compact as its predecessor was expansive.
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Ludacris, 'Release Therapy' (DTP)
The mouth of the South questions his blessed life.
By Chris Ryan 10.20.06 3:00 AM
Last year millions of people took Crash's message of racial understanding through coincidence to heart, but Ludacris, one of that Oscar-winning film's many stars, was not among them. Release Therapy, his fifth album, sees the usually ebullient Atlanta MC/actor/label boss throwing 'bows not in the club but rather in his analyst's office.
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