Category: Reviews

Artist: Cypress Hill Title: IV Label: Columbia Rating: 7/10 Cypress Hill’s latest effort, simply titled IV, is a smoothly crafted album that represents Cypress’ maturity as well as their increasingly strong musical background. The changes of the past few years have not scarred the band in the least. In fact, they have maintained their status…

Artist: Phil Collins Title: A Hot Night In Paris Label: Atlantic Rating: 5/10 From the start the album reminded me of shopping at one o’clock in the morning for pop and chips. Don’t get me wrong, the band is excellent, but this disc had me wishing Phil Collins would break out and start crooning. This…

Artist: Robert Bradley Title: Time To Discover Label: RCA Rating: 8/10 Coming out of the box quickly are Robert Bradley and Kid Rock, roaring and taking you “Higher”. Robert Bradley’s vocals are extremely gripping and beautiful. Just imagine Lenny Kravitz but more mature, and then add bits of both B.B. King and Ray Charles’ souls…

Artist: Apollo 440 Title: Gettin’ High on your Own Supply Label: 550 Rating: 7.5/10 Posing a good question about Apollo 440, “Are we a rock band or what..?” is the first track on their third release. Apollo 440 takes elements of electronic drum and bass, rock guitars, and everything in between, to spit out what…

Artist: The American Girls Title: Like The Movies Only Slower Label: Trauma Rating: 4/10 Track # 1. Simply The Most Loved Lush melodies over a lovely rock track. 6/10 2. Heavy And Struck The trumpet that pushes you right into a great song. 7/10 3. Dumb Crush A nice slower song, but a little lethargic.…

Artist: Jay-Z Title: Unplugged Label: Def Jam Rating: 9/10 Jay-Z does it live with the all-encompassing Roots backing him up. Not since LL Cool J and De La Soul opened the door to the world of hip-hop with a live band has anyone been able to harness all the powers like Jay-Z. In all its…

Artist: Mack 10 Title: Bang or Ball Label: Cash Money Rating: 5/10 Mack 10 doing the Bee Gees? For sure. “Hate In Your Eyes” borrows its melody from “Stayin’ Alive”, and liberally. Mack 10 has more talent than this. It’s too bad this is the only song really worth listening to, aside from tracks like…

Artist: Wu-Tang Clan Title: Iron Flag Label: Loud Rating: 8/10 Ghostface puts Iron Flag in perspective: “If there is a message to this album, it’s that we the kings of this shit.” There are some artists that you wait for and some you die for. Wu-Tang Clan used to be in the latter, but as…

Artist: Busta Rhymes Title: Genesis Label: J Records Rating: 6/10 Busta Rhymes seems to have just gotten comfortable on his new label, J Records. Genesis is an album that we haven’t had from Busta in a few years. It’s progressive, it’s raw, but it’s also lacking. Busta doesn’t seem to know where this Genesis was…

Artist: Bow Wow Title: Doggy Bag Label: Columbia Rating: 3/10 From the opener, “We Want Weezy”, with the most annoying Jermaine Dupri doing his worst Eazy-E impression, you get the feeling this is going to be another bad day away from your cd collection. LBW still raps his way around in a circle with Dupri’s…