Chesstown King's Reviews and Thoughts

 I haven't reviewed a DMX album in a minute. This is a really dope album too. late 90s DMX was unstoppable commercially and its easy to see why. The singles here are amazing. "Party Up" is an all time favorite of mine. On "What's My Name" you really feel DMX's rough nature. I like how he slows it down for the ladies with Sisqo on "What These Bitches Want". "One More Road To Cross" is a good opener. This is a very well produced album. I liked most every song too. I haven't reviewed DMX's first 2 albums yet but this one might be the best one. Lyrics 22 Beats 23 Depth 24 Tilt 23 Verdict 92

 Another review that I meant to do earlier. This was Usher's album that came out with his Super Bowl performance. The album gets off to a good start with the title track and single "Good Good". Both Summer Walker and 21 Savage do very well on that track. "A-Town Girl" featuring Latto really works well too. Overall the album is pretty well rounded. I did feel it had one or too many tracks that didn't stand out in the latter half of the album. The song "BIG" is kinda comical as Usher sings he always gets the big combo at fast food places. Overall though its a solid album from Usher. The production is good. Unfortunately there just aren't really any amazing songs like Usher usually has on his albums. Lyrics 22 Beats 22 Depth 21 Tilt 22 Verdict 87

Honorable Mentions: Titan Fall 2, DBZ Kakarot, Star Wars Battlefront II, Uncharted Nathan Drake Collection. 15) Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga-This has proven to be a really fun Lego Star Wars game. It has some great missions from all 9 mainline Star Wars movies. I love the voice acting actually which isn’t what you’d expect from a Lego game. The game is just a ton of fun. You can play as almost any star wars character you can think of…. 14) Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection- I’m no stranger to fighting games. I had Street Fighter V also but this collection I poured way more hours into. It’s got Street Fighter 1, many versions of 2, Alpha, and 3. It has the ability to save your progress in any point of any fight…which I gotta tell you was a real life saver! This is definitely a must have for any Street Fighter fan. 13) NBA 2k23-This is the 2k I probably played the most in recent years due to not getting a new NBA 2k till I got a ps5 (2k26). This is a great game. There’s th...

I meant to review this album a long time ago. At this point i'm convinced Alessia is one of music's most underrated artists ever. The first song "Box in the Ocean" is really smooth."Lie to Me" was a great up tempo song.  On "Shapeshifter" she tackles a  lover that constantly switches things up in a negative way. "Drama Queen" is another highlight. I liked the simple execution on "Find My Boy". I found myself liking most of these songs. Alessia's singing is really good. The production is solid too.....but maybe not better than on her debut.  Ultimately I'd say this is her 2nd best album...and yes Ive heard the 4th album. I have yet to review that one.  Lyrics 22 Beats 22 Depth 24 Tilt 23 Verdict 91

 I thought I'd finally drop another movie review. I recently rewatched Tropic Thunder, the 2008 satirical comedy action movie. This is generally one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. I don't think you could make a movie like this today with things being so woke! The set up here is that you have actors in the movie that are supposed to be making a Vietnam War movie. Early in the movie production on their set things go bad. The guy who wrote the (fictional Tropic Thunder) book suggests to the director that they need to take their entitled actors and "Put them in the real shit" to make their movie good.  The movie's casting is absolutely stacked. You have Ben Stiller who plays Tugg Speedman. Tugg was once a big action star with his Scorcher films but lately they've cooled at the box office. Tugg also played in a movie called Simple Jack where he plays a mentally challenged farm hand that can talk to animals....(yeah LOL). So he basically accepts the role...

 I meant to review this album a long time ago, but never really got to it. This album won a grammy so you know its great. I like this album, but idk I don't love it as much as you'd think. I really enjoyed the Run the Jewels run Killer Mike & El-P were on in the 2010s. "Talk'n That Shit!" is a banger where Killer Mike attacks the beat. "Slummer" feat. Jagged Edge is s a smooth tale of love. The best song here is "Scientists & Engineers" which features Andre 3000, Future, & Eryn Allen Kane. The song is really soulful and smooth. There were some songs I wasn't feeling too much like the last song, "High & Holy". The African talking on that one just seems kinda odd to me.... "Motherless" was a very personal song for Mike.He raps about missing his mother and grandmother. Overall the lyricism is quite a bit better than the beats here, but the album is pretty well rounded. I do feel Killer Mike has been an under...

 People had a lot of hype for this album. For the most part it delivers ....It was interesting to see what Nas would talk about after 6 Albums in 3 years with Hit-Boy.  Nas has some pretty good concepts for this record that very much embraces the past. There's "Nasty Esco Nasir" where he raps from different perspectives of his career (Young, Middle, and Current). I like "My Story Your Story" where Nas and AZ spit some hot fire. "Boquet (To The Ladies)"is just that as Nas shouts out like every female MC there is. Some songs aren't so great like "NY State of Mind Pt. 3". It sounded like the new beat was just so inferior to the classic one.....That brings me to the fact these beats DJ Premier cooked up were good but not incredible. It's a shame really cause Nas was really spitting well on this. Overall tho it's a good album but I think it falls short of much of what Nas did with Hit-Boy. But yeah Nas shows no signs of slowing down......

16) Vultures 2 (72)- It should be no surprise this album is the worst of the bunch. It just comes off as lazy and uninspired most of the time. The production is decent tho. “Bomb” features Yuno Miles and his daughters: North and Chicago West…..and it's really corny. “Husband” is just god awful. I don’t know what he was going for with that one! “Fried” is pretty dope tho….and you can see the potential of “530”. 15) Donda 2 (75) - I haven’t had a lot of time to sit with this one. It’s not that bad tho…in fact it’s kind of average. I really like “City of God” which features Alicia Keys and Five Foreign. Sure lyrically its not great but the production again isn’t bad. Ultimately I feel like this has little to do with the first Donda album…. 14) 808s and Heartbreak (83) - You may be shocked to see this still near the bottom of his discography. While I bumped the score up a little from last time, I still feel 808’s isn’t all that. I love “Heartless” as it’s probably the best song. “Love...

 I meant to review this album way back in 2024. For some reason I always associated it with when I got it....I had Corona Virus when I copped this smh lol. It was awful. However I listened to the album a little bit since then. Dua does a great job here. Lead single "Houdini" is absolutely a banger! The beat is infectious and I love the chorus. "Training Season" features her in her element as well. "These Walls' is a pretty ok song but it seems kinda cookie cutter in my opinion. I really liked "Whatcha Doing" with its uptempo beat. "Illusion" was another hot song. Overall most of these songs are good, but the replay value (tilt) I didn't find to be the album's strong suit....maybe it's because this is what we got after the phenomenal Future Nostalgia (which I reviewed). Overall tho, great album miss Dua Lipa.  Lyrics 23 Beats 22 Depth 23 Tilt 21 Verdict 89