ByronCrawford.com

Nas - Hip Hop Is Dead: Album Review

Nas, Hip Hop Is Dead (Def Jam, 2006)
For a minute there, I was beginning to worry that Nas' new Hip-Hop Is Dead might make it damn near to its release date before I received my special "press advance" copy. Alas, I woke up this morning - damn near two weeks before its official release date - and there it was. Is it any good?

Ghostface Killah - More Fish: Album Review

Akuma writes:

Ghostface Killah, More Fish (Def Jam, 2006)
That was quick. Barely six months have passed since Fishscale and Tony Starks is back with a new joint. Could it be possible to craft a blazing return to the form of the Supreme Clientele days in such a short time? The suspense is killing me.

Juggaknots - Use Your Confusion: Album Review

Juggaknots, Use Your Confusion (Matic, 2006)
Juggaknots (bitch) is the group made up of Breezly Brewin, i.e. the kid from that Prince Paul album, his sister Queen Herawin, and their older brother Buddy Slim. Their first album, Clear Blue Skies, was like the hip-hop Yankee Hotel Foxtrot back before writers began dropping that label on any old bullshit album that got wrapped up in label BS. This is its long-awaited follow-up.

• Juggaknots @ MySpace

The Game - Doctor's Advocate: Album Review

The Game, Doctor's Advocate (Geffen, 2006)
As it turns out, the Game's highly anticipated Doctor's Advocate did see its "Internets release" earlier today. Excepting Diddy's Press Play, it's the first of this fall's uber-massive hip-hop albums to hit the streets, so to speak. Is it any good?

Diddy - Press Play: Album Review

Diddy, Press Play (Bad Boy, 2006)
Looking to cap off a year in which he topped the Billboard singles chart with songs by arguably the two least talented artists to emerge so far this century, Diddy hopes to strike gold yet again with this, his first rap album in four or five years. If this actually turns out any good he will have pulled off one hell of a hat trick.

Planet Asia - The Medicine: Album Review

Planet Asia, The Medicine (ABB, 2006)
Not that this is saying a whole lot, but Planet Asia is one of the best nerd rappers coming out of California right now. His 2004 debut The Grand Opening was named Independent Album of the Year by none other the Source magazine. (I know.) For this, his third in a series of medicine-themed albums(?), he teamed up with Dilated Peoples' Evidence, who handles all of the production here.

Yay.

• Planet Asia @ MySpace

The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America: Album Review

The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America (Vagrant, 2006)
The Hold Steady are, in case you haven't already heard, the hipster band of the moment. Yesterday this, their third album in as many years, became this year's highest rated album so far at Pitchfork. Is the hype justified? I was a big fan of last year's Separation Sunday as well as 2004's Almost Killed Me, so I was eager to find out.

• The Hold Steady @ Myspace
• Stream Boys and Girls in America

Jedi Mind Tricks - Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell: Album Review

Jedi Mind Tricks, Servants in Heaven... (Babygrande, 2006)
I'd be lying if I said I knew what any of Jedi Mind Tricks' other albums are about, but obviously (based on its cover) this is their big political album. Whatever it is, it's motherfucking nails.

• Jedi Mind Tricks @ MySpace

Louis Logic & JJ Brown - Misery Loves Comedy: Album Review

Louis Logic & JJ Brown, Misery Loves Comedy (Fat Beats, 2006)
Not that this is saying a whole lot, but Louis Logic's 2003 debut LP Sin-A-Matic was easily one of the better rap albums to come out this decade. But I guess it failed to set the world on fire, and so now he's back after three years with this collabo joint with bald producer JJ Brown, who I think did some of the better songs on the last album.

• Louis Logic @ MySpace

Thom Yorke - The Eraser: Album Review

Thom Yorke, The Eraser (XL, 2006)
Today Pitchfork gave the new Thom Yorke solo album a remarkably low (for Radiohead) 6.6, while Stylus gave the album an an A- on its decidedly anticlimactic A-F scale. Obviously, both of them can't be right, so who's wrong? Watch as your father cracks the case once and for all.