MIKE – “Pompeii” review

Here we have the 9th studio LP from Livingston, New Jersey emcee & 10k Global founder MIKE. Breaking out a decade ago off his debut mixtape Winter New York, he would continue to make a name for himself by churning out 4 more tapes as well as his previous 6 albums & 8 EPs full of amongst the finest abstract hip hop that you’ll hear within the last decade. Standouts include May God Bless Your Hustle, War in My Pen & even the Wiki collab effort Faith is a Rock entirely produced by The Alchemist. Burning Desire, Pinball, its sequel & Showbiz! have all become acclaimed for their own different reasons too & he looks to raise the stakes by having the Surf Gang produce Pompeii.

“The Fall” comes out the gate jumping over an Evilgiane beat to talk about swerving the most overseas whereas “My Worst (Rebuke)” takes a more psychedelic approach instrumentally admitting that he’s gonna do everything he did at his lowest once more. “Da Bid” featuring Jadasea joins forces for a 2-parter produced by Harrison & Earl Sweatshirt talking about wearing their hearts on their sleeves just before “NOT 4TW” featuring Anysia Kym cloudily speaks of no longer paying attention to those copying because it ain’t for free.

An early favorite would have to be “The Pope” from the euphoric beat to the calmly delivered lyrics about staying remote leading into “Afro” him recollecting the craziness of how much love has passed. The lead single “Minty” blends plugg, trap, cloud rap, lowend & plugg taking jabs at supposed gangstas who take talents off LinkedIn just before Niontay provides my 2nd favorite guest appearance on “F.E.A.R.”, spitting hardcore verses back-to-back without the need of a hook.

“Tampering” only clocking at 73 seconds long is a shame considering that I really enjoy the plugg instrumental talking about having to interfere with a hoe while “Shutter Island” happens to be the exact same length talking about trusting lies & bloody swords over a beat that somewhat reminds me of Odd Future’s early output. “Back LA” featuring Na’Kel Smith links up so they can speak of living in danger while the 2nd & final single “Back Home” passionately talks about dismantling systems.

Earl joins MIKE for “Kirkland”, saving would I personally considered to be the best feature for last to wind down the last few minutes of the album discussing keeping it simple when doing it big while “#FREE #MIKE” talks about the surprising revelation that even his haters are happy his crew’s around & not changing up on family. “Man of the Month” spends the last 3 minutes explaining that he bled for his dreams to be lived out over a Niontay instrumental despite the other half of it being a simple outro.

Both entries of the Pinball series & Showbiz! all contain some of MIKE’s greatest tracks like “On God” for example, but my favorite song on the latter “Belly 1” exponentially raised my expectations for Pompeii & it sure enough isn’t too far behind May God Bless Your Hustle or Burning Desire for a spot in the top 3 of his entire catalog. The Surf Gang’s production emphasizes the plugg undertones of Pinball II, additionally sprinkling hints of cloud rap & ambient plugg to reflect on the destruction of civilization as we know it.

Score: 4.5/5

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Earl Sweatshirt – “Utility” review

Brand new studio LP & the 7th altogether from Santa Monica, California emcee, producer & singer/songwriter Earl Sweatshirt. Beginning his career almost 2 decades ago using the alias Sly Tendencies as the son of Cheryl Harris & late poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, he posted a handful of tracks for a mixtape called Kitchen Cutlery on MySpace, but the tape would never be released to this day. He formed a short-lived rap trio with 2 of his friends called The Backpackerz & planned to release a mixtape together titled World Playground, but they disbanded sometime in 2009. Shortly after, he joined Odd Future & appeared on their 2nd & final mixtape Radical that May. 10 months later, he put out his only mixtape to date Earl with OF’s de facto leader Tyler, The Creator producing a bulk of it. The tape received a lot of buzz until Earl’s mother would send him to a therapeutic retreat school for at-risk boys in Samoa sometime after until February of 2012. He was then granted his own Columbia Records imprint Tan Cressida Records & released his full-length debut Doris a decade ago to critical acclaim right before I started my junior year of high school for his clever rhyme schemes & the gritty production from The Neptunes to even the RZA. He then formed the duo Hog Slaughta Boyz with OF affiliate Na’kel at the beginning of 2015 & released his sophomore album I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. a couple months after. Many of which consider to be better than Doris for its darker aesthetic. Some Rap Songs not only wound up being my 2018 Album of the Year, but the bastard child of one of my all-time favorite albums: Madvillainy. Feet of Clay the year after marked a new distribution deal Tan Cressida signed with Warner Records was a cool collection of SRS outtakes preluding his full-length debut on the label Sick!, which the flawless Voir Dire produced by one of my top 10 producers of all-time The Alchemist cleared. Last summer’s Live Laugh Love detailed his experiences of becoming a father & has brought the Surf Gang in to produce Utility.

“this2shallpass” clarifies over an ambient plugg beat from Evilgiane & Harrison that the only destination going forward is up whereas “:( again :)” goes for a more general plugg vibe talking about finding the strength to get up again. The 3rd & final single “Home on the Range” instrumentally combines plugg & trap confessing he’s not quite over the hill yet while “React” talks about going from basic to advanced training.

Meanwhile on “Hot Water (Cahuilla)”, we have Earl laughing off the idea of him folding & that the hate on the way down be the realest just before “Rectangle Lens” goes for a more experimental vibe talking about shit getting more serious by the day. “Leadbelly” featuring MIKE blends plugg, cloud rap, ambient & experimental hip hop putting a minimal emphasis on each of their distinctively abstract styles just before “quikk” feels like a 2 minute compositional intermission.

“Ew!” would rank amongst my top 5 tracks from the beat to the lyrics about anyone trying him only stumbling & stacking up all kinds of cheese in the cut while the lead single “Earth” fuses cloud rap, ambient plugg, lowend & experimental hip hop speaking of having to scratch the surface so he could breathe. “Chali 2na” compares himself to the Jurassic 5 member of the same name & references WWE Hall of Famer Mr. T while “Sisyphus” talks about freezing over Hell on a daily basis.

Lerado Khalil joins Earl on “Locusts” to discuss how they’re steaming now rather than smoking while “Tour de France” talks about a little mouthful whenever he’s feeling content. “Chicago” compares himself to a merchant the way he stays outside over a Tony Seltzer beat while “Book of Eli” assures he won’t ever go away despite quieting down here & there. “AOK” looks back at when all he wanted was a tub & his father while “Don’t Worry!” sends it all off talking about him deserving to be burnt the 1st time around.

Right when “Making the Band (Danity Kane)” came out on SoundCloud a couple years ago, I knew the possibility of the Surf Gang producing an entire body of work for Earl Sweatshirt was a guaranteed & it’s as brilliant as I would’ve imagined. I already prefer the production more than Live Laugh Love mostly because it’s a lot different than what those who’ve become familiar with Earl’s discography would expect, expanding on the previously mentioned loosie’s cloudy plugg ideas & demonstrating his capability of rapping over anything.

Score: 4.5/5

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9 Vicious – “Emotions” review

Atlanta, Georgia rapper & producer 9 Vicious dropping his 4th studio LP a week after doing adlibs for Ye formerly known as Kanye West’s 12th album Bully. Breaking out in 2024 off his debut single “U Fancy”, he would go on to further introduce himself on B4SA & the full-length debut Studio Addict helped him gain more exposure to the point where Young Thug signed him to YSL Records after B4TM dropped & Tumblr Music wasn’t that bad of a debut for the label other than “Clout Demons”. B4FN & For Nothing have both become the best things he’s made since the YSL deal, departing when the Uy Scuti Bøyz consisting of diamond* & Tezzus signed. B4EM in January was mostly carried by the production & was curious to hear how Emotions would be following the biggest co-sign of 9’s career yet.

“Talk About It” produced by 406ahmad samples “The Meaning of Love” by Steve Kuhn speaking of people wanting to know how he made it prior to “Amazing” flipping “Sex with Me” by Rihanna thanks to Patrick Garza telling a MILF he ain’t tryna cheat on her. “Posing Tonight” splits itself into 2 halves to depict the gangsta lifestyle until “Rolling Loud” celebrates his upcoming performance at the festival whilst dissing OsamaSon & che.

A couple of A$AP Rocky’s greatest tracks “Fashion Killa” & “Purple Swag” get heavily sampled on the next few songs using the exact same names although I’d rather put on the original versions of them just before “Clock It” talks about having a stripper bitch. “Trevon O’Ryan Echols” will easily go down amongst 9 Vicious’ more profound songs admitting that it’s not easy being him while “Vivienne Westwood (R.I.P.) / O.G. Got the Drop” continues from there with another 2-parter talking about being a real punk.

“Want U” finds himself coming out as bisexual & I’m not trying to say that’s a bad thing in any way shape or form because there are plenty of LGBTQ+ artists I’ve covered in the past, but it doesn’t necessarily surprise me. “Project4Play / SVJ” divides itself in a couple different portions dissing both Tezzus & Young Thug while “Molly Ecstasy” hops over an cloudy R8 beat with heavy 808s, although bars like “she give that head like a MAGA hat” don’t really do it a whole lot of justice.

Kacy Hill producing “Sunset Hill” seems appropriate considering she was signed to G.O.O.D. Music at 1 point, working in a guitar so 9 can represent YSL when he was literally firing shots at Thug earlier. “U Dig Det” continues the 2nd half talking about giving a fuck less regarding all the cap he sees when he wakes up while “My Whole Heart” promises his lover that he’ll give her his all, although the “Listen Up Jews” nod at the end of the 1st verse made me cringe.

“Julia” talks about being in Los Angeles & a woman by that name calling him spewing a whole lot of nothing the way he sees it while “Need” takes a shot at Afrobeats to ask his bae what she needs from him. The instrumental on “Love Album” isn’t any issue although the overly sexual lyrics get quickly tiring while “Italy” responds to Tezzus pulling up to his mother’s house by claiming that it didn’t bother him & how he wouldn’t ever cheat on the person who has his heart when he probably is unfaithful.

Rounding out 3rd, we have 9 trying to make the classic MGMT single “Electric Feel” into his own down to 406ahmad sampling it & “Life’s Funny” samples “Ironic” by “Alanis Morissette” to talk about God having an interesting way of telling him this chick’s the one. “Forgot” confesses to being so locked in to the point where it slipped his mind that he was in a relationship & “Blowing Emotions” sends off the album with 1 more 2-parter that Nosaint of Vanguard Music Group cooked up talking about having so many feelings.

It was confirmed earlier this week by ApolloRed1 that the collaborative project he & 9 Vicious have been planning for a year has now been scrapped because of 9 taking issue with Apollo doing an upcoming tape with OsamaSon & although I did wind up enjoying Emotions a little more than the prelude at the end of January, it’s not by a whole lot. I’ll reiterate the praise I’ve always had regarding his ear for production, although I still adamantly believe his whole shtick of beefing with everyone & “homaging” as many musical icons imaginable to be running dry.

Score: 3/5

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Thundercat – “Distracted” review

Los Angeles, California musician, singer/songwriter & producer Thundercat returning for his 5th studio LP. Emerging in the 2000s as the bassist for Suicidal Tendencies, he would subsequently sign to Brainfeeder Records & make his full-length debut The Golden Age of Apocalypse nearly a week before I started high school. He would follow it up with the sophomore effort Apocalypse a couple summers later & his debut extended play The Beyond / Where the Giants Grow a month succeeding my graduation became popular due to the inclusion of his most lauded single “Them Changes”. It would eventually be included on Drunk, which is his most cohesive musical statement & an essential within the Brainfeeder discography. It Is What It Is mourned the loss of his friend Mac Miller & he’s having Greg Kurstin produce most of Distracted.

“Candlelight” gets things going with this smooth R&B intro singing about a lighting burning at both ends whereas “No More Lies” co-produced by Tame Impala fuses psychedelic soul, neo-psychedelia, boogie, synth-funk & synthpop suggesting he’s better off staying on his own. “She Knows Too Much” by Mac Miller blends funk, neo-soul, pop rap, jazz rap, jazz-funk & disco rap to talk about a woman out of his league leading into “I Did This to Myself” featuring Lil Yachty hops over a Flying Lotus instrumental combining neo-soul, funk, nu disco & disco rap to discuss relationships.

A$AP Rocky appears on “Funny Friends” rapping & singing about being homies until the very end just before the yacht rock-tinged “What’s Left to Say?” courtesy of Kenny Beats assures this person that the can spend their whole lives trying to figure out how they feel inside even if it’s a lie. “I Wish I Didn’t Waste Your Time” goes for a psychedelic neo-soul vibe with hints of jazz fusion & synth-funk addressing an ex-girlfriend of his while “Anakin Learns His Fate” compares himself to Darth Vader from the original Star Wars trilogy.

“Walking on the Moon” calmingly kicks off the 2nd half singing about a woman who takes him higher while “This Thing We Call Love” featuring Channel Tres tells their partners to take their time since it’s only them. “ThunderWave” featuring Willow Smith experiments with neo-soul, neo-psychedelia, tribal ambient, nature recordings, chillout & new age yearning for their lovers to hold them until reaching shore while “Pozole” suggests maybe he’s out of touch & only showing this person exactly who he is.

The song “A.D.D. Through the Roof” embraces a neo-soul sound talking about his attention deficit disorder going insane while “Great Americans sings over 1 last FlyLo beat about everything he does being a learned behavior of it’s own & landing on his feet every time he continues to fuck up. The self-produced closer “You Left Without Saying Goodbye” concludes the album clarifying that he hasn’t lost his sense of humor, hinting at posting his feet on OnlyFans being his new side hustle.

Exactly 6 years to the day since his previous full-length, Distracted could be my least favorite installment in Thundercat’s discography although there are some tracks I see myself revisiting & enjoyed it top to bottom slightly less than Big Mama last month. Greg Kurstin’s production culminates in psychedelic soul, neo-soul, alternative R&B, progressive soul, pop soul, jazz rap, nu jazz, synth-funk, jazz-funk, smooth soul, neo-psychedelia, boogie, synthpop, funk, pop rap, jazz fusion, disco rap, funk music, nu disco, tribal ambient, nature recordings, chillout, new age & yacht rock capturing the tensions between overstimulation & introspection.

Score: 3.5/5

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Sunn O))) – Self-Titled review

Sunn O))) is a drone metal duo from Los Angeles, California consisting of bassists/guitarists Greg Anderson & Stephen O’Malley. Their full-length debut ØØ Void & the sophomore effort Flight of the Behemoth respectively were both solid, dropping the latter under Southern Lord Records. White1 alongside its sequel White2 & more specifically Black One all increased their popularity, the latter being my favorite in the Sunn O))) catalog. Oracle was great too, following it up with their 2nd best in my opinion: Monoliths & Dimensions. 观世音 however might be the band’s worst, coming off the more positively received Life Metal & Pyroclasts to make their Sub Pop Records debut with their 11th studio LP.

“XXANN” epically kicks things off with this 18 & a half minute drone metal composition whereas the doom metal-influenced “Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?” comes through with an ode to the pioneering black metal band Venom. The hypnotically repetitive 2nd & final single “Butch’s Guns” ends the 1st leg containing some of the strongest riffs throughout the full-length prior to “Mindrolling” experimenting with nature recordings. “Everrett Moses” continues the other half blending doom metal & dark ambient while “Glory Black” ends with a fusion of drone metal, ambient, nature recordings & impressionism reminiscent of Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version.

Life Metal was easily the most I’ve personally enjoyed a Sunn O))) album since Monoliths & Dimensions, but Pyroclasts was almost as great & this new eponymous offering from the drone metal veterans demonstrates Greg Anderson & Stephen O’Malley willingness to evolve their unmistakable sound into bold new forms. Their Sub Pop debut predominantly takes it back to their roots m outside of the dark ambient, nature recordings, drone, doom metal, ambient & impressionism undertones handling all of the instrumentation by themselves rather than bringing some outside collaborators in.

Score: 4.5/5

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Fat Ray – “Santa Rosa” review

In front of us is the 5th studio LP from Detroit, Michigan veteran Fat Ray. A member of the trio B.R. Gunna alongside Black Milk & Young RJ, he would eventually go solo in 2008 by dropping the criminally slept-on The Set Up, but it wouldn’t be until a full decade later when it was followed with both The Lunch Room mixtape & then his sophomore effort Perseus. Santa Barbara proved to be the strongest since his debut until Food From the Gods topped it, dropping Santa Rosa in preparation for Food From the Gods II.

“Rap City in the Basement” hops over a drumless loop talking about having a lot of room for improvement & being 1 with the microphone whereas “Plates” energetically looks to flip the script every time he gets off the stage across the country. “2 B’s” gives off a more aggressive vibe talking about being in it to win it leading into “Fast Freddy” featuring Black Thought bringing both of them together to get on their battle shit lyrically.

The title track fuses boom bap with hints of jazz rap talking about moving shit all across America while “K-Dot Pool” looks to run up some plays until it feels like sap to everyone else. “Good Sense” brings some horns into the fold talking about how all his squad does it plot & maneuver just before “High Score” featuring Marv Won discusses all of these phony muhfuckas imitating their styles spreading a lot of poison in the music industry today.

“Lockdown” gets the last leg of Santa Rosa going cautioning that nobody wants to get shot down by him while “Big Worm” has a bit a funkier sound to it talking about having to make some turns because it was all apart of the process. “Change Us” featuring billy woods leans towards a drumless chipmunk soul direction explaining that they were raised by the homicide right near the danger & “Mitch Green / Scudded” spends the album’s last 4 minutes delivering a 2-parter.

Seeing the amount of love Food From the Godsgot last year made me really happy for Fat Ray because it was his way of showing how far he’s come since The Set Up, but I’m happy we got a Santa Barbara sequel in preparation of Food From the Gods II because fans of Santa Rosa’s predecessor will enjoy the follow-up as much. Ray’s hardcore/gangsta lyricism & Raphy’s boom bap/drumless production that made Santa Barbara so great is being brought back albeit amplified & bringing more higher profile guests on board.

Score: 4/5

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Tony Shhnow – “Flood” review

New surprise LP & the 9th altogether from Atlanta, Georgia plugg pioneer Tony Shhnow. Being introduced to his music after my younger brother J$zpiech showed me his 4th mixtape Black Billionaires Club & the song “Vet” off the full-length debut Da World’s Ours 3, he then continued to turn heads with his 8th mixtape Reflexions to critical acclaim & I honestly wish I covered it considering that some of his best songs are on there like “Finessin’” or “Forgive Don’t Forget”. He would return to his plugg roots on the BeatPluggz produced Plug Motivation, Love Streak showed a more sensual side to him, Shadowbanned 2 dabbled with new sounds, the self-produced #NoOneElse was a step above Out the Woods & painted an introspective Self Portrait produced by Mike & Keys last fall. Looking to end the 1st quarter of 2026 though, Flood has dropped without any further warning.

“HWYC (Intro)” hops over a horn-inflicted trap instrumental to get the tape started talking about going hard whereas “Redbone” goes for a pluggier vibe admitting that he can slow done if he wants to, but has no plans of stopping. “Look Good” featuring ManMan Savage finds the 2 decently talking about making names of themselves around their neck of the woods until “Fuck You Mean” combines some synths & pianos shouting out a bunch of local labels who paved the way for him.

Dreek Jones joins Tony for “Salt Kills Snails” produced by Earl on the Beat moderately talking about getting so high in the morning to the point where neither of them can tell if it’s real or not while “No Plans” featuring Heartless Kid admits to turning down certain artists when their music comes on because they aren’t saying anything. “Priceless” has a cloudier sound to it talking about paying the price to become a boss just before “Road Rage” featuring D.R.A.M. & YoDogg references WWE Hall of Famer Mr. T over a soul sample.

“Legend Has It” featuring Luh Tyler kicks off the 2nd half with both of them talking about dying as street celebrities if their music careers don’t pan out the way they hope while “Need Me a Milli” cautions that things will get sticky for those who dare to run on him. “Pushin’ Player” featuring Ebo Sosa brings both of them together to talk about giving their demons Hell instead of fighting them these days while “Stackin’ & Flippin’” incorporates some synth-horns making bread whilst waiting for what’s his.

Jose Guapo’s feature on “Fa Nun” might be favorite throughout Flood, pairing to discuss that they ain’t turning up for nothing while “Seeumsayin” hops over some creepy synthesizer melodies getting on his gangsta shit lyrically. “Too Much” experiments with a jazzier approach instrumentally talking about some doing more for the goes than they should be & the outro “Spare Change” speaks of some being too weak over a woodwind.

Tony Shhnow has always been one of the most consistent artists in the entire plugg subgenre, but Flood would have to rank amongst the weaker entries of his discography although it contains slightly more highs than lows. He’s rapping his ass off & the varied production are both 2 of the biggest pros this album has going for it, except the half where he’s killing it by himself feels a lot stronger than the other half where he’s running laps around his guests.

Score: 3/5

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Kanye West – “BULLY” review

Chicago, Illinois rapper, singer/songwriter, producer, fashion designer & former G.O.O.D. Music founder Ye formerly known as Kanye West finishing his long-delayed 12th studio LP. Someone who I personally have considered a top 10 producer of all-time up until this point with 3 perfect 10s in his discography: The College Dropout, Late Registration & My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. He sadly lost touch with reality in 2025 for a 4-month manic episode amplifying the hate speech he’s been spewing since late 2022, for which he claims to be deeply mortified & has deep regret over. However, the final version of Bully is among us now that YZY SND signed a distribution deal with gamma. & removing all the YeI vocals that plagued the unfinished version of it around this time 12 months earlier.

The self-produced “King” samples “Reach for a Star” by Duke Edwards thanking Martin Luther King Jr. for him marrying Bianca Censori whereas “This a Must” goes for an industrial hip hop vibe talking about him coming for the glory during the Graduation era & the 9 Vicious adlibs were unexpected. “Father” featuring Travis Scott with co-production from Che Pope flips “Heavenly Father, You’ve Been Good” by Johnnie Frierson speaking of waking up to new versions of themselves leading into “All the Love” singing about having nothing to worry of & having YZY’s Head of Music 88-Keys sample “Fayek Alaya” by Fairuz.

North West instrumentally takes it back to the College Dropout/Late Registration days on the chipmunk soul-inspired “Punch Drunk” rapping about him having to lead to read between the lines just before “Whatever Works” flips “Don’t Wonder Why” by Cissy Houston referencing WWE Hall of Famer Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Mama’s Favorite” heavily builds itself around Ty$’s background vocals thanks to YZY SND in-house producer 1SRAEL of Working on Dying remembering his late mother Donda while “Sisters & Brothers” survives the infamous In a Perfect World sessions chopping up both “Get Involved” by Jonah Thompson & “My Loleatta (Dish Apella)” by Ellis D to discuss his antihero status.

The title track ends the 1st half sampling “Mujhe Maar Daalo” by Ashle Bhostle courtesy of The Legendary Traxster addressing all the controversy he got himself into between February & May of last year while “Highs & Lows” wasn’t as strong as the original version due to the sample not being cleared in time. “I Can’t Wait” flips “You Can’t Hurry Love” by The Supremes talking about figuring the system out & being consecutive at shutting shit down while “White Lines” samples Stevie Wonder’s cover of “They Long to Be (Close to You)” by The Carpenters admitting he belongs by himself sometimes.

“Circles” might be the only track on the album that I don’t care for & it has nothing to do with Don Toliver handling all of the vocal performances, but rather the way “Huit Octobre 1971” by Cortex is being sampled. Makes me wanna listen to one of my favorite Madvillain songs “1 Beer” instead. “Preacher Man” has to be a top 5 on the whole thing flipping “To You with Love” by The Moments talking about the plot twist being convenient when there isn’t any lies told there while the downtempo “Beauty & the Beast” was originally conceived during the Donda sessions according to Mike Dean, sampling “Don’t Have to Shop Around” by The Mad Lads singing about overcoming a few things when I’d say it’s more than a few.

The song “Damn” has a significantly minimal approach to the beat pondering whether Ye ruined things or if it’s because this is the way he is while “Last Breath” featuring Peso Pluma comes together over a sample of “Bésame Mama” by Poncho Sanchez, going full Latin to tackle the concept of toxic relationships. That said: It’s another cut on here I’d do without. “This One Here” ends the album with a reworked version of a leftover from him & James Blake’s cancelled collaborative effort War looking back at all the hot water he got himself into since 2022, clarifying with confidence that he’s healed & moved on from it all in addition to killing his ego when the argument can be made that we haven’t seen Ye’s ego in it’s final form yet.

Hype Williams’ visuals as a fan of the ブシロード-owned 新日本プロレス deserve to mentioned, adding onto his recent attendances at events put on by the サイバーファイト-owned division プロレスリング・ノア & DDTプロレスリング’s sister promotion 東京女子プロレス (TJPW). Appearances in the video include former 2-time NEVER無差別級6人タッグチャンピオン & 6-time IWGPジュニアタッグチャンピオンヨウ, former 3-time IWGPタッグチャンピオン, 7-time NEVER無差別級6人タッグチャンピオン & GHCタッグチャンピオン矢野通, AJPW世界ジュニアヘビー級チャンピオン, NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Champion, 6-time IWGPジュニアヘビー級チャンピオン, 2-time IWGPジュニアタッグチャンピオン & 2-time GHCジュニアヘビー級タッグチャンピオンタイガーマスクIV and former 5-time IWGPジュニアヘビー級チャンピオン, CMLL Arena Coliseo Parejas Campeon, 4-time IWGPジュニアタッグチャンピオン, NEVER無差別級6人タッグチャンピオン & GHCジュニアヘビー級タッグチャンピオンエル・デスペラード.

You’ll always have that group of people who say they won’t forgive Ye or listen to his music ever again after everything he said & did the year earlier, which is absolutely more than understandable & I can’t place blame on anyone for feeling that way because of morally obvious reasons. Nevertheless: If he’s truly committed to taking accountability or receive treatment to break a destructive cycle he’s based nearly his entire career off of, then Bully’s a start because merely calling it superior to the Vultures series would be a ginormous understatement. The production’s heavily reliant on the use of samples bouncing between the styles of neo-soul, experimental hip hop, drumless, chipmunk soul, alternative R&B, art pop, industrial hip hop & urban contemporary gospel revitalizing his passion now that he’s no longer under the reign of a major label.

Score: 4/5

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Juvenile – “Boiling Point” review

Juvenile is a 51 year old rapper, songwriter & actor from New Orleans, Louisiana introducing himself 3 decades ago his full-length debut Being Myself. Forming the Hot Boy$ with The B.G.’z & Turk after signing to Cash Money Records, his sophomore effort Solja Rags showed greatly improvements over it’s predecessor & 400 Degreez would become the greatest album in the label’s history even now. Tha G-Code, Project English & Juve the Great would all be received positively in their own rights, leaving Cash Money & releasing Reality Check under his own imprint UTP Records in tandem with Atlantic Records to divided feedback. Juvie’s first LP in over a decade & his 12th overall however gave me hope since Cocky & Confident, Beast Mode, Rejuvenation and The Fundamentals were all forgettable.

After the intro, the first song “Lenny Kravitz” produced by Mannie Fresh blends trap & rock to talk about being too clean to fuck with dirty hoes whereas “Drop the Location” works in some hi-hats & a chipmunk soul sample to address those who don’t want to see him at the top. “Pay Me” makes it clear to this woman throwing it back for him that he wants to be paid back in sex while “You Mad” hops over some strings from Swizz Beatz clapping back at the people who envy him.

“Juvie Beverly” combines elements of gospel & trap talking about making some changes in his life just before “Hot Boy Summer” featuring B.G., Jacquees & Trombone Shorty finds the quartet embracing a dirty south vibe dropping an anthem for their city ahead of the weather getting nicer. After the “Doze Off” interlude, “The Reunion” featuring Birdman & B.G. reunites so they can talk about the Cash Money Millionaires’ return while “The Hottest” featuring B Streezy, Roi Anthony & Young Juve opens up regarding seeing a whole lot of bodies.

Megan Thee Stallion’s appearance on the remix of “B.B.B. (Big Booty Bitch)” was far more entertaining to me than the original version of it with Genesis da Gawd kicking off the 2nd half of Boiling Point with an ode to the strip clubs while “Meph Town” issues a stern warning about methamphetamines. “Pull Up” featuring Birdman, Goodfella & Lil Bryan brings all 3 of them together for a decently cloudy pop rap cut while “Fuego” dedicates itself to the ladies, having DJ Khaled bringing back the rap rock influences.

“WYM (Whoa)” featuring Akeem Ali talks about both of them being picky with their bitches due to their own biases while “Neva Go Broke” gives off a bit of a tropical atmosphere courtesy of London on da Track declaring that he ain’t ever losing all of his money. “1 More Round” fuses trap & rock again for a carefree dedication to all the drinkers & once “He Gone” featuring Dee-1 talks about the kind of people who are gonna blow up because of their credibilities, “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah” boisterously ends by assuring that he only cares for results over a Timbaland instrumental.

There are some Hot Boy$ fans that’ll tell you that Juvenile is the greatest member & I can’t even argue that considering 400 Degreez’ impact, although I have a feeling most of them will feel vindicated once they find out Boiling Point surpasses both B.G. & Lil Wayne’s latest full-lengths Freedom of Speech & Tha Carter VI. Putting its flaws in terms a few of the guests performances missing the landing & some of the production aside, it’s refreshing to hear Juvie sounding this confident after continuously putting out duds.

Score: 3.5/5

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Chief Keef – “Skeletor” review

Right in front of us is the 6th studio LP from Chicago, Illinois rapper, singer/songwriter & producer Chief Keef. Rising to stardom over a decade ago off his 6th mixtape Back from the Dead & the full-length debut Finally Rich, he would go on to become a progenitor for drill music popularizing it in the Windy City inspiring the likes of Lil Uzi Vert & 21 Savage or even Billie Eilish. Other standouts in Keef’s discography include Bang 2, Almighty So, Back from the Dead 2, GloToven, 4NEM, the Mike WiLL Made-It produced Dirty Nachos & Almighty So 2. It’s already been a couple years since the latter, returning to end the first quarter of 2026 with Skeletor.

The self-produced “Break Down” aptly sets the tone of what’s to come even if it’s said to be an outtake from the Almighty So 2 sessions whereas “The Real Chief Keef” boisterously calls for all these puny fuckboys to get their paper up. “24Hrs” works in some 808s & bells talking about being up every hour of the day just before “Video Shoot” featuring Ian proved to be an underwhelming trap single being fed up with hoes telling sob stories.

“Mark of Buddha” continues from there talking about bleaching his eyes after everything he’s seen over the course of his career leading into “Harry Potter” making vast improvements above the previous single blending hardcore hip hop, trap, the Flint sound, Chicago drill & cloud rap confessing he would’ve gone to the NFL had his music career failed. “Only for the Night” ends the 1st half going full pop rap additionally showing off his ear for sampling while “#2” hops over some synths keeping that green & blue shit on him.

G Herbo joins Keef on “Slide” to get on some Chicago drill gangsta rap shit together for 6 minutes while “Shrek & Donkey” produced by Murda Beatz energetically talks about how zooted he is. “PS5” featuring Rich the Kid finds both of them speaking of looking at Satan in his eyes while “Good” checks in on those near him making sure they’re fine. “Talking Ish” featuring Ballout was a decently cloudy trap single discussing of the gangsta lifestyle & “Doja” ends with him flying straight to the bag.

In no way would I consider Skeletor to be in the same field as Almighty So 2 & 4NEM or even Dirty Nachos, but I did enjoy a majority of what this album had to offer. His production puts a bigger emphasis on trap similarly to 4NEM, except it’s not as adventurous other than the secondary influences of Chicago drill & pop rap as opposed to the latter experimenting with subgenres like crunk. I also felt that only a couple guests stood out, which was justified by most of them getting outperformed.

Score: 3.5/5

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