Chesstown King's Reviews and Thoughts

J.Cole Born Sinner Track by Track Review   Villuminati : The perfect album intro. The beat is hot, the Biggie sample is appropriate, and Cole does great lyrically. He gets at people that think he’s Illuminati also in the last verse. 9.5/10   Kenny Sermon(skit): An interesting piece by a preacher. It has the same beat as the next track. 7/10   Land of the Snakes: I think this song showcases Cole’s storytelling. It feels similar to some songs on his first album…but its more effective in my opinion. He deals with the pressure of stardom which includes the pursuit of women. 8/10   Power Trip:   Miguel joins Cole here. He does a good job with the chorus. I really like how the songs parts effortlessly flow together. The beat is fire and yet very relaxing and smooth. 9.5/10 Mo Money(Interlude): A nice interlude. I haven’t heard a rapper say “Money” so much since Game on “Money” lol. 7.5/10   Trouble: Thin...

Kanye West Yeezus Track by Track Review   On Sight- This track was produced by Daft Punk, so the beat is way out there….the lyrics aren’t all that but this is a great way to open the album… 9/10   Black Skinhead-This track is high energy as well. Its actually one of the finest Kanye songs I’ve heard…since MBDTF.   The beat is infectious, as is the chorus. The song borders on tribal with lots of other elements mixed in. 10/10   I Am A God-Spooky, horrocore, Enigmatic. All of these can be used to describe this song. Kanye’s Ego is on full force here. The result is an interesting track. The beat has a techno feel to it. The screaming is borderline annoying however. 8.5/10   New Slaves-Lyrically, I think this is the album’s best song. The beat is creepy, and the chorus is effective. “Used to only be n***as!”. The song is great but the end of the song is rather un necessary. 9.5/10   Hold My Liquor-This song remi...

NBA Playoffs 2013   It was an interesting season this year in the NBA, but I will focus on the playoffs.   Round 1 The round one matchups were pretty predictable, for the most part. I’ll start with the West and work my way to the East. The Thunder wupped the Rockets, but they lost Westbrook, which really hurt them.             The Spurs beat my beloved Lakers. I mean the Lakers were too injured to fight a team so formidable. The Warriors upset the Nuggets, which I was glad to see. The Grizzlies beat the Clippers in just 6 games surprisingly. The Clippers seemed to be better than last year, but so were the Grizz.             In the East, Miami destroyed the Bucks which was no surprise to me. The Knicks beat Boston in a touch 6 game series. I think if the Celts would have had Rondo they would have won that one series.     ...

This is a list of the top rappers from late 2012 to mid 2013. 1)       Kendrick Lamar(4)- There’s no doubt that K.dot has been the top rapper in this year long stretch. His album Good Kid Maad City was a classic, and a borderline masterpiece. Since then he’s been featured on a lot of albums. He also did a dope B**ch Don’t kill My Vibe Remix with Jay-z. I don’t think K.Dot will hold this spot in the next list but who knows. 2)       Kanye West(3)-The former chart topper, is back in familiar territory. Yeezus was a great album, but he’s also this high for Cruel Summer. I think Kanye is arguably the best rapper alive but the next rapper on the list would have something to say about that, as well as big brother Jay-z. 3)       Nas(1)-Nas fell, but not far. Life is Good was excellent. This year Nas has still maintained a presence. He is a constant in the rap world like Jay-z who unfortunately didn’t...

Eve’s comeback album is decent but it sounds very unoriginal compared to other albums I’ve heard. Don’t get me wrong, this is a solid album. Eve spits hard, and the production is also pretty impressive. There’s really nothing wrong with this album except maybe some minor construction issues. Other than that its basically on the same level as Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday, and that’s a compliment. Hmm the final score is a 8.5/10 which is really good.

Wiz really reminds me of Snoop Dogg, for obvious reasons. However he’s not quite that talented lyrically. There are some quality songs up here like the anthemic Work Hard, Play Hard. There are also some songs that are just average, or Wiz just trying to do too much like on No Limit . Ultimately he’s just an average rapper, with nothing special to talk about. However I feel Wiz will make   better albums in the future. I'll give this a 7.5/10. Not bad.

The Iron Man Ghostface Killah teams up with Adrian Younge the beat maker, and the result is a really good album. The album is dark, and that is by design. The beats are interesting and are sound like classic Wu-Tang production….The album isn’t very long but its an engaging listen. Ghostface is without a doubt one of rap’s best to ever do it. Final score is a 9/10.....

Wassup y'all. I wanted to do something diffrent for my 150th blog. Ah it seems like just yesterday it was 2011 and I decided to blog. Anyways I want to thank you for reading my blog. Here is a list of what to expect coming up from me soon New Blogs Coming Soon Yeezus Track by Track Review Born Sinner TbT Review The List of Top Rappers for the 1st half of 2013!!! An NBA Playoffs 2013 perspective blog R&B Blog(My Top 30 All time) Well those are 4 blogs you can expect to see soon. :P

I am an average fan of the Metal Gear series, so i dont know all the storylines. This game is a follow up to MGS4, which is arguably the best PS3 game of all time. So what makes this game so diffrent and unique, and yet similar to the others?? In this game you control Raiden, not Snake. Raiden is just so awesome. THe cyborg ninja has unreal speed and strength. You can run really fast and attack at the same time or jump.....The controls are super smooth. Offensively you have this thing called blade mode where time slows down and you literally slice up the enemies....In some cases you can even take their cybernetic spines to heal yourself. It's a wild game. Defensively you must parry enemy attacks. This takes the place of blocking so to effectively defend you have time your parries. Of course some attacks you can just dodge. You fight a variety of enemies from Gekko, weaker cyber soldiers, strong cyber soldiers, robotic birds, Gorilla like robots.....and well some other robots as w...

This posthumous albums isn’t one of Pac’s best, but its not that bad. One of the biggest problems is it’s a double disc, which unfortunately correlates to quite a bit of filler. However there are some good songs scattered here and there. Until the End of Time and its Remix are the best here. Some of the songs are similar across the 2 discs. Overall lyrically the album is great, but the beats are only ok. There isn’t a lot of replayability in my opinion but this album is a good addition to Pac’s discography. The final verdict on this album is 7.75/10. Its decent but far from perfect.

Eminem Breakdown Date: Summer 2013 “The Real Slimshady”   Rapper albums The Slimshady LP 1999 Top 3-5 Songs: My Name Is, Just Don’t Give a F***, My Fault, Guilty Conscience Album Score: Beats-3.8, Lyrics-4.2= 4 Rapper Stats: Flow-87 , Versatility-86, Relevancy-88 Rapper Rating: 87 Comments-The SLimshady LP featured a young Em, who was at the time just beginning to have popularity. The album is great, as Em paints great pictures with his rhymes. Eminem really showcases his skills throughout the album. He instantly became the best white rapper of all time. But to him, I don’t think that’s enough.   The Marshall Mathers LP 2000 Top Songs: The Real Slimshady, The Way I Am, Stan, Criminal, Kill You Album Score: Beats-4.5, Lyrics-5= 4.8 Rapper Stats: F-95, V-92, R-98 RR: 95 Comments-Slim’s best album is just incredible. He storytells with the best of rappers. When he says better than 90% of you rappers out there…..mayb...

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi ROTJ has the honor of being my favorite of the star wars movies. It has the best special effects of the original trilogy which is to be expected. This is movie is all about the maturation of Luke Skywalker and the Redemption of his father, Anakin Skywalker(Darth Vader).   This movie is so much fun. It starts out with Vader telling the Death Star’s Commander that the Emperor is coming. Then it shifts to Tatoine for the rescuing of Han Solo. Jabba the Hut is a vile villain that is apparently not weak minded. Afterwards Luke finds out from Obi-wan that Leia is his twin sister. Then the movie gears up for its final scene.   The movie is really good at the end where u have a 3 staged battle going on. There’s a huge space battle between the Rebels and the Imperial fleet, a ground battle between Storm troopers and mostly Ewoks and rebels….Then of course there’s a duel between Darth Vader and Luke. I won’t spoil the ending but The empe...

Episode V: Empire Strikes Back I remember a quote from Lucas himself…but I wont quote it. He basically said that in Episode IV you are introduced to the characters. In Ep. V he puts them through very tough situations.   Make no mistake, this is the best of the trilogy, and the best star wars movie out of the six. How so? It flows beautifully and there’s tense action from start to finish. From the Ice Battle on Hoth, to the lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader; this film out does Ep. IV in every way.   The film is a cliffhanger…but before its over we learn that Luke has been trying to defeat Vader, his father’s “killer”, when in fact, Vader is Anakin Skywalker. This shocking revelation is so popular and at the same time very ironic. The movie ends with a good setup for the next movie’s first act.   Verdict: 10/10

I’m happy to say that Talib Kweli has come back with a strong effort. His last album, Gutter Rainbows was good, but some songs were quite underwhelming. This one starts out well, gets a lil slow, but finishes really strong. Kweli’s lyrics are great but not his best. The production is very neat and goes together from song to song. I feel it’s a well-rounded album, with good use of guest spots which include; Melanie Fiona, Kendrick Lamar, Busta Rhymes, Miguel, and even Nelly. Overall it’s a win but I’m not sure if he still has the ability to make albums that are stellar like Quality or Revolutions Per Minute. Well this will certainly do tho. I'll give this a 9/10. Its great, but not close to perfect.

This album is hailed as a classic and its not hard to see why. Every song is great, and there are some exceptional ones too. The production is great as well as the album’s construction.She spits with intensity on Lost One, and keeps it real on Doo-Wop(That Thing). She may not be the best female rapper of all time due to only having this album, but this album is a classic and one of the best I’ve heard. I wish she’d make another album… The vinal verdict is a 10/10, no suprise there; i hope u arent.

Mariah has been trying to perfect her new style since 2005, but she seems to have finally done it, after her previous albums disappointment.   The album is really good front to back. Vocally Mariah shows lots of range . I can tell the DREAM wrote most of the songs, and they are very clever. The production is great also. The album holds up well to repeated listens, but some songs sound a tad bit too similar. Minor complaints aside this is the album she should have came out with in 2008. I feel that Eminem was way out of line on his Relapse song. Ultimately this album is known for the song Obsessed instead of it being a great album. So the final score is a 9.5/10 . MC!

This is the movie that started it all. I remember being a kid and watching this over and over…..The movie is really quite simplistic, but its very effective. You are thrown in the middle of a story, not really knowing much about the galaxy far far away.   The movie has some good special effects for the time. There isn’t a a whole lot of action in this one, which is to be expected in the first of 6 movies. However you soon learn to love the main characters: Luke, Obi-Wan, Leia, Han, Chewie,C-3P0 and R2D2. You also start to fear the mysterious villain Darth Vader. Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin are the only main villains in this movie. The movie has some really good dialogue. In fact you could dialogue is what really makes the OT flow. The final space scene at the end is very well executed and tense. When the film is over, I felt satisfied. I really had no idea where the trilogy would go in its next installment.   Verdict: 9/10  

50’s 2009 effort is a step in the right direction from the only right above average Curtis…He sounds fierce here, but it kinda sounds forced, just like his label mate Eminem’s Relapse. In fact both rappers were trying to get back to their roots on their 09 albums. However 50’s lyrics are good and the delivery is good. The beats are like an 8/10 which is kinda low for a 50 Cent album. Most of the songs are quality such as the great BBM with Ne-yo, and Psycho with Eminem. 50 does a great job of holding you attention, even though some of the songs sound too similar.   The album isn’t contructed that well as far as track order, but this is a win for 50. I hope he tries more experimental things like on Curtis and stops just getting rich, and keeps trying lol. The final verdict is a 8/10 for 50....its a good album but not great. Is his career over???

This album is kinda like 2 Chainz album….but theres even more guests here, and French is lyrically very weak. However the REAL PROBLEM with this album is its lack of creativity and originality. The biggest problem is that French M. does not stand out at all. It’s like he’s taking rap back to places it does not need to be.. However the production is solid, and the construction isn’t bad. Overall its almost a C effort, but not quite. I just didn’t feel like the album was as good as it should have been, but then again it is a debut album. Hmm so what's the final verdict.....its a 6.75/10...or slightly higher. POP THAT!

A lot can be said about Stillmatic. Its arguably Nas’ most versatile album. He touches on a lot of topics, and most every song is very thoughtful. The album starts off well, with a stellar intro. Then he wastes no time slaying Jay-z with Ether, the nastiest diss track I’ve ever heard. Got Yourself a Gun and One Mic are incredible songs. My Country and What Goes Around are great conscious songs. Rewind is also very creative. Braveheart Party isn’t that good, its very very poor. However 1 bad song isn’t enough to weigh down the depth of the album. There’s not many guest spots either. Overall it’s a must have for any rap fan. Nas knew he would have to come back hard in 2001 and he did just that. Overall Rating 99(One of rap’s gems) Lyrics 25 Beats 24 Depth 25 Tilt 25

Rapper-Young Jeezy Breakdown Date: Summer 2013 “The Snowman”   Rapper albums Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101 2005 Top 3-5 Songs: Soul Survivor, Go Crazy, Standing Ovation, Bottom of the Map Album Score: Beats-4, Lyrics-3.2= 3.6 Rapper Stats: Flow-74, Versatility-75, Relevancy-83 Rapper Rating: 77.3 Comments- Jeezy’s first album is a “cult favorite” of mine. It has lots of good songs on it, but not much in terms of variety. However Jeezy’s ad libs are good, and the guest list is great which includes Jay-z, T.I., Trick Daddy,Bun B, and Akon. What stands out to me is that Jeezy can hold his own on most tracks without a guest rapper.   The Inspiration: Thug Motivation 102 2006 Top Songs-Go Getta, I Luv It, Bury Me a G, Dreamin, 3 A.M. Album Score: Beats-4, Lyrics-3.4= 3.7 Rapper Stats: Flow-78,V-77, R-85 Rapper Rating: 80 Comments- This album is a bit harder to review than TM101. TM102 is better, even though it get...