I didn't super care for the single on this, Tantor. Loved the rest of the album though. Production on this is great, Danny always brings something interesting.

EDIT: Been listening back through. The 3 track run of Dark Sword Angel, Y.B.P. and Jenn's Terrific Vacation is my favorite part of the album. Bruiser Wolf's flow/voice on Y.B.P. cracks me up

This is a point I wish more people understood. People say rap glorifies this street stuff (and it does) and that is why there is so much street violence in some places. But art doesn't create reality, it reflects it. People make art about what they know and what they see, so of course they rap about it.

There are exceptions, dudes who didn't grow up in that life rapping about it, but that is again a reflection of their life. These are guys who were big in to Hip Hop who created art mirroring what they grew up with, which is rap about a violent life style. They are also the exception, not the rule I feel.

This album was an embarrassingly large part of me getting in to Hip Hop. It wasn't my first album, that was The Eminem Show. But I was a little moody for about a year there and the edgy teen I was really identified with a lot of the depression and anger on the album. I still like Eminem now, but I mostly listen to his goofier songs (Real Slim Shady, Without Me, Lock it Up) or anything featuring Swifty McVay. Giving it a re-listen yesterday night I still really liked it, but it is weird to listen to it and not identify with it at all. And some of the lyrics made me kind of uncomfortable knowing I used to rap along with this.

Favorite songs back in the day would have been Kill You, The Way I Am and Kim. Because I was a vaguely poor teenager and I was mad about it. Looking back at it now though, I found myself really getting in to pretty much the whole album, just not identifying with any of it.

The only songs I really didn't enjoy now are Amityville and Kim. Amityville has Bizarre so we all know what went wrong there. Kim is just...too mad. I don't know why I loved that song so much as a kid, because I had a decent childhood, but looking at it now it is weird. It kind of gives me some insight on my kids I think, seeing the sort of stuff I felt "reflected me" at that age. Hormones man.

Favorite track for me is 3010. The first beat, the second beat it switches to, the fucking hard-ass guitar riffs at the end, all perfect. Esoteric? Always immaculate. I specifically remember writing the lyrics to this in a notebook because I couldn't find them online. The Life of a Tape is second, I love a good concept track.

What about everybody else, favorite track?

Why would you admit this? haha

J Cole coming in hot. I’m not always the biggest fan of his songs, but he always kills the feature.

Went with an undisputed classic this week, the 2005 remaster because that is the earliest version on Spotify. It is hard to pick, but personal favorite tracks are Things Done Changed or Hypnotize. I also have a soft spot for Big Poppa because it makes me think of the Keanu Reeves movie Hardball, which I love despite it being not actually very good. And Who Shot Ya? of course. This album has too many good tracks to make narrowing it down easy honestly.

What is everybody else's favorite tracks?

Diddy fucked up a lot of songs in the late 90s with his adlibs and dancing around in people's music videos.

Glad they gave it B.o.B.

This version is ok but just not quite as good imo. Hayley Williams still slaps on the hook though.

Not a huge Token fan, but I like trying to post different types of stuff. Hope somebody enjoys this

I've been going out of my way to listen to new Hip Hop, where I'm very much not the target audience. I don't mind being an old head and mostly having older tastes, but I don't want to turn in to that grumpy "everything was better when I was young" guys.

That said, I liked this more than I'd have expected. I think I have a thing for EDM based Hip Hop. Stand out tracks to me were DOOR TO DUSK, MATERIAL LOVE and DXE DXE DXE. Only track I just didn't like was LOVE POTION. In general, the first half of the album was overall better imo.

You fuck on me wrong, I'ma bake your potato

Wayne please

I keep it rollin' like paraplegics

2 Chainz, why?

Jokes aside, good track. I'm always here for Wayne and 2 Chainz

Holy shit I've seen that. I just upvote literally everything to try to cancel that shit out

Agreed. I listened to it a few more times this weekend and I have enjoyed it more with each listen I think

Anybody else really love the opening Intro? Fast forwarding through his life, from birth to his current day, using the backing music to set when each thing is happening? Absolutely genius. One thing I really miss about the old era of Hip Hop was the use of intro and interlude tracks like this to set the tone, before the album really kicked in or before a certain song. That said, the Fuck Me interlude is the most awkward thing in the world. The headphones I use most around the house leak sound and my wife was wondering what the fuck I was listening to.

I had to dig to find this and I know the song isn't rap but the verse is. Hell, I don't even know if it counts as a verse. Genius has it listed as an "outro", but Ghostface Killah on Miley Cyrus' song D.R.E.A.M. is ridiculous. It is the last ~20 seconds of the song and what was a pretty alright sort of ethereal pop song suddenly has the music change out of nowhere and Ghostface comes in rapping....just kind of out of nowhere? It almost sounds like a different track got edited on to the end of the song by accident. Except the song is clearly referencing the Wutang song D.R.E.A.M. so clearly it is intentional. Idk.

If we are going to keep it strictly Hip Hop, Soulja Boy fucking ruins Trigger Finger by Lil Wayne. I was re-listening to this album a few weeks ago and while it isn't Wayne's best it has some solid songs on it. This WOULD have been one of them if Wayne hadn't decided to have a fucking Soulja Boy boy feature in 2013.

Eat a bitch out then spit my gum in it

Wayne, what?

That girl is gonna get a yeast infection

I'd been putting off listening to this album all week, but this convinced me to finally do it

EDIT: Solid overall. Couple of the tracks really stood out to me, mostly Kyanite Toothpick and Living Curfew. Kind of fell off towards the end, but I feel that way about a lot of albums haha

I love this track. Benny has some dumb-ass opinions but dude puts out some of my favorite music over the past ~5 years. And Cole of course always kills the feature.