Kid Ink- Full Speed ALBUM REVIEW

Today I am reviewing the second studio album from Kid Ink, titled Full Speed. This guy, as you may be able to tell from his album cover, is about as generic as it gets. Last year around this time I gave his album My Own Lane a pretty harsh review, but for good reason. There is nothing about Ink that stands out, and he raps the same way every time he gets on a track. He will also throw out some really cringe-worthy lines and hooks on these songs, resulting in a bad project all around. This guy does always manage to collaborate with artists I like, such as Pusha T, ASAP Ferg, and Young Thug. Full Speed is pretty much the last chance I am giving Kid Ink, so will he finally drop a decent album?

Full Speed is a pretty diverse album from a production standpoint. Kid Ink works with a lot of producers I like, and it pays off as the beats on this album were good for the most part. Some of the beats on here were pretty interesting and unique compared to ones I have heard in mainstream hip hop. The second track, Faster, had a pretty fun beat, with a grungy synthesizer leading the track to give it an almost punk sort of vibe. I liked it a lot. On the other end of the spectrum, the song Body Language had a fun, happy, upbeat instrumental, led by some pretty interesting percussion sounds. The Migos-featured Every City We Go had some subtle vocal samples to give it some real personality. The unstoppable Metro Boomin provides the beat for the song Like a Hott Boyy and it sounded awesome, as usual for Metro. While some of the beats here, namely What It Feels Like, Dolo, Cool Back, and Round Here were pretty nondescript, these were kept to a minimum on Full Speed. I liked a lot of the production on this album. For your average mainstream hip hop album, I couldn't really ask for better beats.

So yes, I thought the production on this album was pretty good. I really can not say the same about the primary artist. Kid Ink continues to be an extremely mediocre rapper. I would say he actually got worse on Full Speed. His verses were just so boring, predictable, and dull on this album. He pretty much sounds like a blend of every average mainstream radio rapper. There are moments where he tries to get unique and do something different, but unfortunately this often ends up laughable. The worst moments for Kid Ink here are the hooks. He delivered pretty rough hooks on his solo tracks, like Faster, Round Here, and the absolutely awful Blunted. The tracks with guests on the hooks were a mixed bag. Dolo, the track with R. Kelly, was a massive disappointment. Hearing one of the greatest singers ever relegated to the role he had on this song was pretty sad. Body Language was a pretty catchy radio jam that I enjoyed listening to. I can say the same about Hotel with Chris Brown, a track I actually thought was excellent. With Show Me being one of the only good tracks on Kid Ink's last album, it is evident him and Chris Brown have pretty good chemistry. Other features on Full Speed include Migos, who made Every City We Go a memorable track, and Young Thug, who even with a limited role killed it on Like a Hott Boyy. Overall for Kid Ink, this is his best album. While that is not saying much, I actually liked this more than I thought I would. I legitimately got a few good songs out of this. Unfortunately though, my opinion on Kid Ink hasn't changed, and this album as a whole was nothing more than average.

FULL SPEED WRAP UP
+Some really fun, enjoyable pop-rap tracks
+Solid features from artists I like
+Decent production
-Kid Ink never impresses
-Corny moments


Best: Body Language, Every City We Go, Like A Hott Boyy

Worst: Blunted

Kid Ink- Full Speed
5.6/10

**KENDRICK REVIEW COMING SOON**

Big Sean- Dark Sky Paradise ALBUM REVIEW

Today, I am bringing you a review of Big Sean's new album, Dark Sky Paradise. This is Big Sean's 3rd studio album, and I have had a pretty polarizing opinion on the guy so far. There will be times where I think this guy has great potential, whether it be from his good 2011 debut Finally Famous or a nice feature verse like on the songs Clique and All Me. Other times I feel Big Sean is unbearably corny and terrible, and these times have been recently. His last album, Hall of Fame, was awful. This album had almost no good qualities to it and it had me down on Big Sean. This new album, Dark Sky Paradise, looks promising, but will Big Sean really impress me?

With Kanye West executively producing this album and overlooking it, Dark Sky Paradise shines in its production and mood. The album flows incredibly well from track to track, and while every song brings something different, most of the beats follow a dark, solemn sound. This is the first album of Big Sean's that really has a true identity. Sean works with a variety of great producers on Dark Sky Paradies, including Kanye, DJ Mustard, Mike Will Made It, and DJ Dahi. The first song that stands out production wise is All Your Fault, produced by Kanye himself. He absolutely killed this song, adding some awesome female singing samples into the trap style drums. I Don't Fuck With You has two beats, one being a bouncy DJ Mustard groove and the other a soulful Kanye instrumental.The song Paradise has fat, loud horns dominating it, along with some hard drums. Possibly the most interesting and unique one here, though, is the Outro. This was an odd concoction of melodic soul samples and fast paced drum sounds. It sounded amazing, and was a happy ending to a pretty dark album. This album's production, other than some beats that sound similar to each other, is spectacular. The production of Dark Sky Paradise carries the album, and ultimately is what makes it so good.

I have expressed my disdain for Big Sean many times before, but I feel he steps up just enough on this album. Sure, he still throws out at least three incredibly corny lines on every song and has a pretty annoying voice. But on this album he shows off his best skill, which is flowing well over the beat. I think he fit this production perfectly, and he ended up sounding really good on most of the tracks. He opens up the song Blessings rapping very well over the atmospheric production, and he raps pretty fast there too. I was impressed by his technical skills not only on that song, but on many others here, like Dark Sky, Paradise, and Outro. It is clear at this point that he doesn't care much about his lyrics, and he seems to have two corny moments for every clever line he drops. On an album like this though, with such great production and sound, it does not stand out nearly as much as it used to for Sean. The other thing that really carries Dark Sky Paradise and makes it a lot better is the features. The song All Your Fault, a song pretty much dominated by Kanye West, is fantastic. It is catchy and fun, but also has a pretty dark vibe.surrounding it. With its incredibly infectious hook and solid Kanye verses, this is one of the best songs that has come out this year. As for the other features, they just elevated whatever song they were on. Drake continued his dominant run with a good verse on Blessings, and Lil Wayne took a mediocre song with Deep and saved it with some awesome bars. While hooks may be the album's weak point, with bad ones like Stay Down and I Know, there was one shining one, being Play No Games. This one was sung beautifully by Chris Brown, and it has been stuck in my head for a while. Overall, I can say I liked almost every track on Dark Sky Paradise. Even though Big Sean still isn't a great MC, he improved considerably with his skills on this album, and then the featured artists added a lot. They made the songs memorable, along with the stellar production. I am glad to say Big Sean put together not just a good album, but a surprisingly outstanding album.

DARK SKY PARADISE WRAP UP
+Big Sean improved slightly and became someone who doesn't bother me at all
+Production was extremely good being overlooked by Kanye West
+Catchy, fun, infectious tracks
+All Your Fault is a song of the year contender
+Fantastic features

Best: All Your Fault, Play No Games, Outro

Worst: I Know

Big Sean- Dark Sky Paradise
8.7/10

Ghostface Killah & BADBADNOTGOOD- Sour Soul ALBUM REVIEW

Today's review is on the new collaboration album from Ghostface Killah and BADBADNOTGOOD. This is a project I have been pumped about for a while. This collab came out of nowhere, but it is really promising and cool. BADBADNOTGOOD is basically a jazz trio who have been successful making jazz and rock remixes of popular hip hop beats, while the legendary Ghostface Killah from the Wu-Tang Clan is just always awesome. He has recently released some good albums, but the BBNG production here has me way more excited for Sour Soul than I was for those. How will this collab sound throughout a full album?

BADBADNOTGOOD handles all of the production on Sour Soul, and as I expected, it was pretty stellar. The beats on this album are pretty unorthodox for Ghostface, as BBNG is really a jazz group more than they are a hip hop group. While there weren't any bad instrumentals and all these beats were good on their own, they sounded very samey across the album. Aside from a few songs, Sour Soul didn't have much variety in its instrumentals. The whole album sounds pretty sinister, dark, and dry. Most of the beats on here, while bringing cool instruments and effects, follow this formula. There were only a few beats that stuck out, one of them being Gunshowers. This track was led by an awesome string tune, with synthesizers and steady drums pacing the beat. It was super smooth and sounded great. The instrumental song Stark's Reality was also a standout. I loved the sound of this, with the vibe being very dramatic. So, there were a few that I did like a lot, and I'm not saying the beats here were bad, because I think BBNG did a solid job. I just think there wasn't much variety, and the production ended up sounding a bit forgettable.

As for Ghostface Killah, this guy is a legend in hip hop. He was awesome in Wu-Tang Clan, and continues to be with his consistent solo releases. On Sour Soul, he is back to his usual tricks, rapping with his high-pitched forceful delivery and spitting some great lines. The thing is, Ghostface only raps on eight of the twelve tracks, which is a massive disappointment. I was really excited mainly to hear him over this production, and I only get it on a handful of tracks. The ones he did rap on, though, only just alright for the most part. After the forgettable title track intro, Ghost brings out two straight bangers with Six Degrees and Gunshowers.The former is a dark, energetic fist pumping track that features an awesome feature from none other than Danny Brown. The latter is extremely smooth, with Ghost rapping effortlessly over the guitar beat. It features another Detroit MC, Elzhi, who I felt absolutely killed it, adding a new element to the song. Unfortunately, no other tracks match up to these two highlights. A lot of these were just boring to me, like Street Knowledge, Food, and Mind Playing Tricks. These solo Ghostface tracks were just forgettable, with no memorable qualities. The song Ray Gun, which featured the legendary MF DOOM, was also not great. I felt the song flowed in an odd way and DOOM just didn't do much of anything in his verse. Overall, this collab was a disappointment to me. It was very small, with Ghost only rapping several times. While Sour Soul did bring me two absolutely awesome tracks, everything else was a bit forgettable.

SOUR SOUL WRAP UP
+Cool vibes with dark production from BBNG
+Ghostface raps with usual energetic delivery
+Two great features from Danny Brown and Elzhi
-Not much variety with production
-A lot of forgettable, meh moments

Best: Six Degrees, Gunshowers, Food

Worst: Tone's Rap

Ghostface Killah & BADBADNOTGOOD- Sour Soul
6.4/10

Drake- If You're Reading This It's Too Late ALBUM REVIEW

Time for another very late album review. I promise I will eventually return to doing these reviews when the projects actually drop, but for now, expect some serious lateness. Today, over a month after its release, I am reviewing Drake's new album, titled If You're Reading This It's Too Late. Drake, arguably the most popular man in hip-hop right now, has had an interesting rap career thus far. Amidst countless amounts of controversy and hate, he has dropped some great music. His 2011 album Take Care was one of my top five favorite albums of that year, and his 2013 album Nothing Was The Same, while not amazing, was solid. IYRTITL is his new, surprise album and even though he is saying its a mixtape, he did put it on iTunes for a price, so it is essentially an album. How will Drake's new release be after consistently dropping good projects?

No matter how bad the rapping may be, Drake's albums have always had fantastic production. Constant Drake collaborators 40 and Boi-1da return on this album, bringing some great beats to the table. The production on this project is great, and I didn't hear any beats that were bad or hard to listen to. The first track, Legend, made use of some cool vocal samples and loud, high hat drums to give it an interesting contrast. The track Know Yourself also had this contrast, with banging drums to give it a real hard, hip-hop feel, but also high pitched synthesizers floating in the background to make it sound elegant. There were some tracks here like 6 God and Used To where the beats are fast, gritty, and loud, but also songs like Wednesday Night Interlude, Company, and Jungle where the beats are more traditional Drake: slow, melodic, and a real R&B feel. This project definitely has more variety than Drake's other albums, and I think this is his best production yet.

Like the production, Drake's rapping is extremely varied and interesting on this album. The first thing that jumped out to me was the style and flow Drake uses on most songs. Right from the intro, Drake combines singing and rapping, having moments where he will randomly break out into singing during a verse, or moments where he will rap a lot slower to make it sound more melodic. This is a bit of a mixed bag, but on most tracks where he does it, I like it. On Legend, he sing-raps pretty much the whole track, and I loved it. This is also present on 6 God, a track where the production is a lot more high-energy, but the sing-rap style still really works. Some other songs on this album are good simply because of how catchy they are. Know Yourself has an infectiously awesome hook and I think this was the most memorable song on the project. Energy, 10 Bands, 6 Man and Company also are great because of their great hooks. Company in particular was one of my favorite tracks on the album because of the way Travi$ Scott is utilized. This guy, one of my favorite rappers right now, brings a whole new dimension to the song, singing and rapping in a menacing, dark way. Speaking of features, there were very few on the project, but all of them were good. Used To with Lil Wayne was solid, and R&B talent PartyNextDoor gets his own track with Wednesday Night Interlude, which I thought was absolutely fantastic. He killed it. Finally, I thought Drake was killing it lyrically on this album, covering a wide range of topics. He came with a barrage of metaphors and wordplay on No Tellin, rapped to his mother on You & the 6, and fired disses to Tyga on the closer, 6pm in New York. Overall, IYRTITL may be Drake's second best work behind Take Care. This album was extremely varied, and Drake found a new style and swagger on it. There were only a few tracks I didn't like, and with the amazing production, you have an incredible project.

IYRTITL WRAP UP
+Drake sings and raps with success, sometimes doing both at the same time
+Covers a variety of topics lyrically
+Great features
+Fantastic production

Best: Know Yourself, Wednesday Night Interlude, Company

Worst: Now and Forever

Drake- If You're Reading This It's Too Late
8.6/10