Music Reviews In A Minute: J. Cole - Cole World, The Sideline Story

Well, rumor had it –  that a man from The Ville (Fayetteville, North Carolina to be exact), caused a Cole World to emerge out in these streets; but the release of J.Cole's "Cole World: The Sideline Story" hastily reset this rumor to a truth.

Music Reviews In A Minute (Retro Review): A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders

Music Reviews In A Minute is back to recommence. Please forgive me for the extended hiatus, folks. I know I have a lot of catching up to do. So, because I burdened you with that crazy hiatus, it’s only fair that I treat you to a journey back to hip-hop’s Golden Era with a review of an album from A Tribe Called Quest’s discography. Can’t think of a better way to return to Music Reviews In A Minute than discussing the reminiscent, collective sounds of Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, and Ali Shaheed Muhammed.  With that said, I went crate digging, pulled out the Midnight Marauders album, grabbed my sidekick 8thlight, and we took an enriched trip back down memory lane - to which I’m requesting that you join us.

While artists like Beastie Boys, Jungle Brothers, and De La Soul, among many, were making their legendary mark in the Golden Era, A Tribe Called Quest was alongside them respectfully. So much that they even inspired actor Michael Rapaport to make his directorial debut with a documentary about the group.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday [Deluxe Edition]

Nicki Minaj reminds me a lot of Eminem, whether it's the different voices and inflections that she utilizes, the energy or the funny punchlines.  Sadly, she's a little too much like Eminem with her first project.  Pink Friday is an incredibily ordinary album from an extraordinary talent.  Nicki's debut suffers from trying too hard to be pop.  She's built enough of a buzz before the album ever dropped so to try so hard for mainstream success is a bit of a mystery as well as crippled the album.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Kanye West is his name (filed under Innovative arguably and/or respectfully by many). My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is his album; and in addition to the rest of the world, 8thlight and I are now here to chime in on the present conversation regarding this album, in today's Music Reviews In A Minute.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Retro Review: Dr. Dre - The Chronic

In this newest installment of Music Reviews In A Minute Dayrell and I take a look at Dr. Dre's west coast classic, The Chronic. The album's most noted for the debut of one, Snoop Dogg.  As always, Dayrell's scores are in red and mine are in black.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Skyzoo & !llmind - Live From The Tape Deck

On Friday, 8thlight and I gave you another review from our retro album review series of Music Reviews In A Minute with Nas' Illmatic; but today, we are flipping the script to bring you a review of a current album release. In continuation of our current album review series, this time, we chose to review Skyzoo & !llmind's Live From The Tape Deck. I was particularly looking forward to reviewing this album with 8thlight because, initially, when I heard that these two artists were in preparation of completing an album together, I was eager to hear how it would sound in the longrun. I'm sure 8thlight will agree. Nevertheless, on to the review.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Retro Review : Nas - Illmatic

Dayrell and I are back again with another, Music Review In A Minute.  This time we are doing another one of our retro reviews.  Earlier we took a look at (MF) DOOM's Born Like This.  This time we decided to go a little further back into the archives and rate Nas' magnum opus, Illmatic.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Retro Review : DOOM - Born Like This

This time we have our first retro review.  During these reviews we will be taking a look at great albums from the recent and not so recent past to help establish that baseline that we talked about in our original Music Review In A Minute.  Think of it as a way to measure newer releases against albums that are widely considered great or classics.  Hell, maybe they are just considered classics by us.  First up is DOOM's Born Like This:

Music Reviews In A Minute: The Roots - How I Got Over

This week, 8thlight introduced Music Reviews In A Minute as our new feature to the blog and now we are back with another installment. This time, we are reviewing The Roots’ How I Got Over.

Again, to keep you familiar with the process, we rated each song on the album on a scale of one to five stars to come up with the final score (as we will do with all other album reviews from here on out, for both current and classic albums). Furthermore - in fairness, album intros, outros, interludes, and skits are not included in the ratings.

The set of red stars are my ratings and the set of black stars are 8thlight’s.

Music Reviews In A Minute: Black Milk - Album Of The Year

I have been kicking around the idea of reviewing music on this site for a while now.  I just was looking for another way to do it than your typical write up with flowery language or overuse of street slang.  I also wanted to do reviews in a way that would be more than just me telling you what I love, but to also give you my perspective along with that of another.  I have certain artists that I love and may give a very bias opinion on, but I want to hopefully counteract that with alternative point of view or at the very least, another point of view.  A Cali girl and a PA guy should be varied enough in points of view, right?

The plan is to review current as well as classic albums in a quick and concise fashion.  I look at the classic albums as a baseline for our tastes in a matter of speaking.  We will be getting to the classic albums soon enough, but first up Dayrell and I will be reviewing Black Milk's Album Of The Year.