Chesstown King's Reviews and Thoughts

Rihanna is my favorite singer by far. It’s time to take a look at her discography and rank the albums. This was actually very difficult as a lot of these albums are about as great as each other.   8)  A Girl Like Me (89)- This might be her worst album of the bunch but it’s still really good. Her singing is just as great as it was on her debut. “Unfaithful” still gives me the chills all these years later for some reason. “SOS” and “We Ride” are also great. “If It’s Lovin’ You Want” and “Break it Off” have good guest spots too.  Top Tracks: SOS, Kisses Don’t Lie, We Ride, Unfaithful, Break it Off.   7)  Music of the Sun (91 )-Rihanna’s first album is pretty solid actually. Her Caribbean roots are perhaps strongest here than on her other albums. “Pon De Replay”, her lead single may be the best song but there’s quite a few other good ones here like “Here I Go Again” and the incredible “Music of the Sun”. She shows a lot of sass on “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)”....

 I can't believe I hadn't reviewed this album yet. Rihanna wanted to make a much darker and edgier album than 2007's Good Girl Gone Bad. There's terrific songs here...in fact...there are no bad songs. "Fire Bomb" is light hearted but I love it. "G4L" is the album's darkest moment as she calls her fellow women to arms. "Stupid in Love" is obviously about Chris Brown( I mean who else?). There's the excellent song "Hard" with Jeezy. "Russian roulette" is provocative but its not one of my favorites. Ultimately this may not be her best album but its one you have to hear.... Lyrics 23 Beats 22 Depth 25 Tilt 23 Verdict 93 Expect a Rihanna worst to best album ranking from me soon. It's gonna be lit.

 So 2011 was 10 years ago. I thought it would be fun to go through my top 10 rap albums of that year and give new perspective on them. I'll give what I said about the album 10 years ago as well as new commentary. I had alot of these albums ranked numerically about the same at the time. 10) Drake- Take Care What I Said Then-  Coming back 1 year after last year’s Thank Me Later, this album isn’t quite as good, but it’s more cohesive than his debut. Drake also seems more comfortable this time around. I really liked about every song, especially Headlines and Take Care. Either you like this because of the singing, or you’ll hate it. Drizzy rounds my top 10. What I think Now- Well to be honest I still don't really love this album more than Thank Me Later...but I have to admit its a better album. There's just not many skips on it all. It probably should of been ranked a little higher than 10th. Drake was in his lane on this album. Songs like "Headlines" and "Take C...

Ah the long awaited Certified Lover Boy from Drizzy Drake. I think its an upgrade over Scorpion which might be one of his worst projects. The album starts off well with the great "Champagne Poetry". The next song, "Papi's Home" is also really good. Drake seems to spit pretty well on this album. The beef with Kanye inspired the song "No Friends in the Industry" and "7am On Bridle Path". I found "Knife Talk" with 21 Savage and Project Pat to be another highlight. "Love All" with Jay-z is ok, but I found Jay's verse kinda average for him. "You Only Live Twice" which features Lil Wayne and Rick Ross might be the best song. Overall tho this is a typical Drake album. Lots of features, lots of singing...you get the idea. It almost sounds like this album coulda been released a few years ago with its tired subject matter. It's a good album but its not as good as I expected.  Lyrics 23 Beats 22 Depth 23 Tilt 22 Ver...

The latest Kanye album was delayed so many times but I'm honestly very happy with the final product. The album just feels way more fleshed out than Jesus is King felt. This is his longest album at 27 tracks. The album has amazing production throughout. It sounds fresh and modern. Lyrically the album isnt the strongest but its still has some good bars. The guest list is massive too. Most songs feature someone. "Hurricane" features The Weeknd and Lil Baby. Another banger, "Jail" features Kanye, while its remix features DaBaby. "Believe What I Say" is a great song that doesnt feature anyone. "Jesus Lord" features a great verse from Jay Electronica. Ultimately I can understand why some don't like this album....it is really long and there could be more Kanye on it....but ultimately its Kanye's best work in years. I'm sure Donda West would be proud of him for this incredible album. Lyrics 22 Beats 25 Depth 25 Tilt 23 Verdict 95  

 This review may be considered late but I hope you enjoy. Nas returns with what I thought was a better album than his 2020 album King's Disease. On the surface tho there's not a whole lot different with the albums. It's got the same producer Hit-Boy. The production is still good but not really better. Theres more tracks and for the most part they're all good. "Death Row East" is a really interesting story....and to think Nas and Pac almost squashed their beef. "Rare" features a great flow from Nas. I really like "EPMD 2" which features EPMD and Eminem. Eminem spits with fury but doesn't really steal the show. "Nobody" features Lauryn Hill and she does a great job. Hit-Boy spits himself on "Composure" with Nas. I really liked "Moments" too. At this point Nas is a top 5 MC of all time and its kind of being set in stone. You're gonna have to take someone off if you didn't think he was there already! Ly...

  Wow just when I thought she couldn't do any better than Joyride....Tinashe does just that. She's made a terrific album where just about every song is great. "X" featuring Jeremih is such a smooth song. "Bouncing" is also well up tempo and fun."Undo (Back to My Heart)" might be the best song....but "The Chase" takes a page out of Rihannas' book for another jam. The single "Pasadena" is really in her lane as well. Her singing is good and the production is pretty decent too. This is the album I knew Tinashe had in her. It's head and shoulders better than her past albums. Give it a listen.           Lyrics 23.                                                              Depth 25           Beats 22                   ...