Reader Review: CunninLynguists - A Piece Of Strange (January 24, 2006)

(For today's Reader Review, the last one I'm running for a while, Will Schmitt, one of the contributors to KevinNottingham.com, continues with the CunninLynguists catalog, picking up where I left off with his thoughts on A Piece Of Strange, the group's third full-length album. Hey, that's one less project I have to worry about.  Leave your thoughts for Will below.)

Reader Review: The D.O.C. - Helter Skelter (January 23, 1996)

(Today's Reader Review comes from longtime contributor Sir Bonkers, who posts over at the Diggin In Tha Crates site.  He took on the thankless task of listening to The D.O.C.'s post-accident second album, Helter Skelter. You probably haven't read much about this album, and there's a good reason why. Leave your thoughts for Sir Bonkers below.)

Black Knights - Every Night Is A Black Knight (September 19, 2007; originally scheduled for release in 2001)

Although I'm technically taking a small break, I'm sneaking in this Wu-affiliate post as a companion piece to Michael's Northstar review.  If you're still not a fan of anything Wu-related, try coming back tomorrow.  This post will still be up, but twenty-four hours will have passed, and you may feel more relaxed about the whole thing.  It's just an article, after all.

Reader Review: Northstar - Bobby Digital Presents: Northstar (October 7, 2004)

(Today's Reader Review takes a detour into Wu country, so if you're just not in the mood, well, I don't know what to tell you. Are you new here? Don't you realize how often the Wu-Tang Clan pops up on HHID? Anyway, Michael decided to write about West Coast affiliates Northstar (and their debut project, Bobby Digital Presents: Northstar, with the emphasis inadvertently placed on the wrong act right on the fucking album cover), and I decided to post it. Leave your notes for Michael in the comments.)

Reader Review: Tyler, The Creator - Bastard (December 25, 2009)

(If you're anything like me, you've already mainlined all fifteen episodes of the new season of Arrested Development and are now on a quest to read about anything but that particular show.  Here's where HHID can help: while the two of you wait patiently for me to write about Odd Future jackass Tyler, The Creator's third album Wolf, which isn't going to happen, at least not anytime soon, I figured you might appreciate the next best thing: a Reader Review for his debut, Bastard. SG Brando takes over from here, pretty much jumping right in; do your thing with the comments below.)

Reader Review: Arrested Development - Since The Last Time (September 15, 2006)

(Since you're not allowed to have a website on the Interweb this week without mentioning the upcoming Netflix-fueled return of cult favorite Arrested Development, I figured I would dig out this not-at-all-related Reader Review for your consumption and/or freebie page hits. Taylor, who just had a Z-Ro write-up posted a couple of weeks ago, pops up again, but although I try not to run too many submissions from the same author so close to one another, I couldn't resist. Leave your comments for Taylor's contribution, based on his thoughts on the Arrested Development project Since The Last Time, below.)

Reader Review: Brand Nubian - One For All (December 4, 1990)

(One thing that's been missing from HHID for a while now is a write-up for an actual classic album, or at least something that most critics believe to be a classic album. Standos attempts to rectify this by discussing Brand Nubian's debut project, One For All. Leave your thoughts for Standos in...well, you should know where comments go by now.)

Reader Review: Z-Ro - The Life Of Joseph W. McVey (February 24, 2004)

(Today's Reader Review comes from frequent contributor Taylor, who takes a trip down to Texas to discuss Houston native Z-Ro's eighth (seriously?) album, The Life Of Joseph W. McVey. Leave your thoughts for him in the comments.)

Reader Review: Nappy Roots - Wooden Leather (August 26, 2003)

Welcome to the return of the Reader Reviews, also known as Max's nap time. Today we continue with the back catalog of the Nappy Roots, as Justa, who first wrote about their debut (which you can read by clicking here), returns to discuss their second album, Wooden Leather. Click through to leave your thoughts for Justa.)

My Gut Reaction: The Game - Jesus Piece (December 11, 2012) + Extra Tracks

Today, because I feel like it and because I should have done this a while ago, I present a write-up for The Game's fifth studio album, Jesus Piece.  It's labeled as a concept album that explores the duality of man, where the spiritual side constantly battles the materialistic void, but the first mistake was to call it a "concept album": unless you're Prince Paul (or, I guess, Ghostface Killah), rappers tend not to take concept albums very seriously.  And, as expected, Jayceon veers off course more often than not, because that is his way.

My Gut Reaction: Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge - Twelve Reasons To Die (April 16, 2013)

Ghostface Killah is one of the nine original members of the Staten Island-born Wu-Tang Clan, and has slowly but surely become the most consistently entertaining member of the crew, which is no small feat when compared with the natural charisma of Method Man, the lyrical genius of, um, The Genius, the musical wizardry of The RZA, or the batshit-craziness of the batshit-crazy Ol' Dirty Bastard (R.I.P.)  Adrian Younge is a music producer and composer who specializes in, as his Wikipedia page refers to it, "psychedelic soul", who has worked with the Philadelphia-born R&B group The Delfonics and handled the soundtrack to the (fucking awesome) film Black Dynamite.

Put them together, and you get yet another reason for Ghostface Killah to not yet release a proper follow-up to Apollo Kids, his Def Jam swan song.

My Gut Reaction: A$AP Rocky - Long. Live. A$AP (January 15, 2013)

I realize that this post doesn't make much sense when you read all of my prior comments regarding "finishing what I started" and how I can't really tackle new artists when I have many, many others I have to finish up with, but that's the best part about running this blog: I can write about whatever the hell I goddamn want.  And I know a lot of people were curious as to how I would feel about Harlem-based A$AP Rocky's proper debut album, Long. Live. A$AP, so I figured, why not?

OutKast - Runonsentence (EP) (February 30, 1995)

After the release and subsequent success of their debut album, Southernplayalisticadillacmusik, the rap duo OutKast, made up of Andre 3000 and Big Boi, found themselves in the midst of a gathering in the lofty residence of the head of their label, L.A. Reid.  While chomping down on celery sticks and spaghetti tacos, Dre and Big Boi were ushered away from the rest of the party to take part in one of their host's secretive poker games, rumored to have taken no less than nine days to finally complete.  Not much is known about how said game actually ended, but within the next few months, L.A. Reid posed nude for Good Housekeeping while OutKast quietly released an import-only EP entitled Runonsentence, available primarily in the Thailand and Laotian markets, although exactly three copies ended up inadvertently being shipped to a mom-and-pop record shoppe in Montana that also doubled as a soda fountain and sold some of the finest milkshakes in the country before it tragically burned down in the great ice storm of 2006.

My Gut Reaction: Fat Joe - Jealous Ones Still Envy 2 (J.O.S.E. 2) (October 6. 2009)

Joseph Cartagena's ninth solo album, Jealous Ones Still Envy 2 (which I will refer to, as the project's very own cover does, as J.O.S.E. 2 from this point forward) is ostensibly a sequel to his 2001 release Jealous Ones Still Envy.  Which itself was, ostensibly, a sequel to his 1995 album Jealous One's Envy.  Which makes this a sequel to a sequel, which already doesn't bode well by me: the third entry in any series, even one as poorly planned and loosely-connected as whatever the shit Large Joseph was trying to pull here, tends to not be a good idea in most mediums.

However, since my whole side project-slash-experiment here is to work through Fat Joe's catalog in reverse chronological order, perhaps I'll have a different take on J.O.S.E. 2 than what I'm sure most of you two are assuming I'll have.  I probably won't, but it's nice to know that I have the option.

Diversionary Tactics: Max's Commentary On The Billboard Hot Rap Singles Charts (Week Ending March 23, 2013)

The last time I wrote specifically about the Hot Rap Singles chart featured in Billboard magazine was nearly five freaking years ago, when the artists written about included Lil Wayne, Shawty Lo, Rick Ross, Flo Rida, and something called a Webbie.  So what better day than today to revisit the charts and see if anything has changed?  (SPOILER ALERT: Lil Wayne is still a fixture.)

Yes, in my quest to do everything except attempting to complete my self-imposed project, I apparently plan on reviving some long-dormant HHID tropes, starting with today's post (because my last article about XXL's list didn't really count).  Does this mean that I plan on bringing back the Drink Coaster write-ups?  Probably not, but if one is looking to see what is wrong (and, admittedly, what may be right) with today's artists, this might be a good place to start.