Chesstown King's Reviews and Thoughts

 J. Cole has finally returned after 3 years, and man I gotta admit I wasnt feeling this that much at first but it really grew on me! The album just might be Cole at his lyrical best....its hard to say. The production is pretty good too. The album gets off to a pretty good start with "95. south" which features some lines from an old Lil Jon song. You know how much I like Crunk music (or did like it). There's some other highlights too like "Pride is the Devil" which features a surprisingly good Lil Baby verse. He storytells pretty well on  "let. go. my. hand". The best track has got to be "the. climb. back" tho where he spits some really sharp bars. Overall this is a really good album from him. It's certainly better than his last outing. Here's to more music from one of rap's most consistent artists.  Lyrics 24 Beats 23 Depth 25 Tilt 24 Verdict 96

I recently beat Final Fantasy 7 Remake. It was an incredible game. No it wasn't perfect but it did so many things right. First off the graphics were truly amazing. The characters looked really realistic for the most part. The voice acting was also a stand out. Even NPCs have voice acting which is really cool. I really liked the main characters voices. I loved that you get to not just control Cloud in certain points of the game. Tifa, Barret, and Aerith are also controllable.  Of course no matter how the game looks and sounds it wouldn't be good without a great battle system. It's kind of like Final Fantasy 15's real time fighting combined with a turn based system. I really liked it. There were some encounters where I didn't have to really do anything, but most fights were tough enough to require me to stay on top of it. The Materia system is really cool, which came from the original game.  I ended up beating the game in about 36 hours. I did most of the side quests ...

 This is the first Jhene Aiko album I think I've reviewed. It's long as hell, this being the deluxe version. There's definitely some stand out tracks but there was quite a few that were monotonous. Nonetheless its a good album. Jhene has such a sexy voice. I swear it's hypnotizing. The production is pretty good and is the perfect backdrop for her singing. "Back on My B.S." and it's remix are really good. I actually prefer H.E.R.'s version to Kehlani's. "P**sy Fairy" is good too. "Tryna Smoke" is another great song were it has a good remix too. Jhene loves to talk about sex but hey it doesn't really get too old. I've got to listen to her other albums now. Lyrics 23 Beats 22 Depth 22 Tilt 21 Verdict: 88

 As you know, Earl Simmons, aka DMX recently passed away. He was a great rapper. I remember listening to him as a pre-teen. Songs like Ruff Ryders Anthem and Party Up were amazing. DMX really brings some hardcore energy to pretty much every song he did.  I remember the first album of his I got which was 2003's Grand Champ. It definitely had some bangers on it. "Where Da Hood At" is my favorite, as well as "Dogs Out" and "Get it On the Floor". DMX was the flagship artist of the Ruff Ryders that also had artists like Jadakiss, Eve, and Swizz Beatz.  Later I wouldn't hear much from DMX till about 2006. He had a terrific verse on Busta Rhymes Touch It (Remix) song. Ultimately you get the feeling even as accomplished as DMX was with the back to back platinum albums that he could of been more than that.  It's so sad that the drug overdose claimed his life. I didn't know till I watched a YouTube video on him a few weeks ago that he had had drug pr...

I just beat this great game. It's basically a Warriors game like Dynasty Warriors which I love. This game is a bit more involved than the first Hyrule Warriors however. I really like how they incorporated Breath of the Wild's Sheikah Slate abilities into combat. Those being Magnesis, Cryonis, Stasis, and Bomb. When you fight tough enemies you'll see a symbol above them briefly which tells you which to use on them. It takes a while to get used to but I really like the depth it provides. The story shows us the events that led up to the Great Calamity as noted in Breath of the Wild. I'd like to avoid spoilers here as its really nice to play through but lets just say you change history in your attempt to defeat the forces of Calamity Ganon. There's lots of playable characters and they do feel pretty different from one another. Most times you can just play as Link but I found Zelda to be a great character after she awakens her sealing power. I also didnt mention you can ...

  Eminem released these bonus cuts for those who wanted more. It's actually kind of like a whole other album tho. Lyrically Em is pretty impressive here but some of the punchlines are kind of corny. The subject matter is kind of becoming tired at this point. "Favorite Bitch" is about how Em feels about the game right now....and how rap has declined. The production is decent but nothing greater than on the first Music to Be Murdered By. There's nothing here as wonky as "Godzilla" but there are some great songs like "Gnat" and "Zeus". I really like how Eminem covers alot of ground on those songs. "Higher" is a great one too. "Key(skit)" is just god awful lol. On "Discombobulated" the closer, Eminem sounds reinvigorated...we needed more songs like that. Overall its not bad at all but its not really better than the first one which is actually included with the purchase of this one. I wasn't gonna originally e...

I haven't reviewed many Busta Rhymes albums but man this one is pretty good. Busta spits really well here but that doesn't really surprising. "Czar" and "Outta My Mind" are definite highlights. I really liked the Kendrick Lamar assisted "Look Over Your Shoulder". However "Where I Belong" featuring Mariah Carey was really disappointing. It was like it they were trying to hard to recapture the magic of their previous hit from 2002. The production on the album is decent but it could have been better. Most of these tracks are pretty good. You've got my favorite comedian Chris Rock all over the album yellin here and there lol. Overall this album really grew on me. I've got to check out the first Extinction Level Event now. Lyrics 23, Beats 20, Depth 22, Tilt 22 Verdict 87