Rick Ross - God Forgives, I Don't

I am a hater by nature (yes, Virginia, mostly because I hate you) so given the ubiquity of Rick Ross in this day and age, dollars to donuts Rick Ross is not going to get Lord Finesse levels of props here at JS-NYC. That continues to be the case, but Rozay has been showing good taste in ghostwriting in recent years that has born fruit for him (see: his verse on that Angels remix with Puff & those two broads). Still haven't wrapped my head around B-Team of top-notch weed carriers he's surrounded himself with, but ultimately it probably means more publishing for our hero, so good on him.

So maybe you heard your boy Rozay has dropped a new record called God Forgives, I Don't. I was actually pretty intrigued, as Ross evidently had his writers working overtime on his recent solid guest verses with Nicki and Kanye. Production is big and the beats are decent. Guest stars are on the level of Dr. Dre, Jay, Usher, and even the increasing phobic Andre 3000. By and large, I'd say it's maybe a 3 on an 10 scale. There are a couple decent tracks in the middle of things, and even a surprisingly good Meek Mill verse, but most of the tracks are like the ponderous 911, where Ross just runs down his Amazon Wish List over and over until things grind to a close. I guess crossover rap fans looking for their next 'edgy' acquisition to their iTunes might  think God Forgives, I Don't is a keeper, but JS-NYC sure don't.

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Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded

Nicki Minaj has managed to become a pretty big deal of late, appearing in venues from the Superbowl on down over the last year. Hopefully she's not getting fleeced six ways to Sunday through her YM/CMB deal, but regardless she has shifted a whole lot of units of Pink Friday already and stands to shift a gang more before the record runs its course.

Minaj does a valiant job of being all things to all people on Pink Friday. Opening with the 80s pop inflected Roman Holiday, things get a little more gutter with the following Come On A Cone before getting way street with I Am Your Leader, a track notable for a good Rick Ross guest verse and the first decent Cam'ron verse I've heard maybe ever, even if it does get a little Twista (never a good idea) towards the end.

Beez In The Trap features 2 Chainz, neck deep in his Sean Price transformation from his former Titty Boi appelation. He's better than I remember, and I would venture this track will continue his rise towards crossover notoriety. Wayne, Nas and Drake all make solid guest shots, as does the pretty irritating Beenie Man (why did it have to be Buju?). The guest shots are heavy, but it's important to remember the reason why we are here: Nicki can body a track and is arguably the best female MC since Lyte.

Rhyme skills aside, Minaj is also a fashion and pop culture icon, a hero to a zillion young girls around the world with ahas a Hulk-sized personae that dwarfs her diminutive frame. Things skew a little too much towards to the image end of things, but at the end of the day that demo is among the few that still pay for records and pony up absurd ticket prices to see her in enormous rooms. And let me reiterate: Nicki can rhyme her ass off, unlike a lot of image-driven artists in hip-pop today. Pink Friday is not going to bump G. Rap or Finesse off the JS-NYC playlists, but is a hell of a solid release for the hip-hop records of today.

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Maybach Music Group: Self Made Vol. 1

There's been kind of a bumper crop of hip-hop in the last couple months. After months where I spent all my time ripping Joell Ortiz freestyles, there have been easily six or seven records I'm actually interested in listening to.

It's even more bizarre that one of them is a Rick Ross posse record. His crew is called Maybach Music Group and he's got Wale, Pill and Meek Millz down, as well as the weed carrier unit extraordinaire Triple C's. The record is called Self Made Vol. 1. I can honestly say I wouldn't have given this a second look had it not been for Hot 97 playing Tupac Back in heavy rotation. I hated hard for a day or so and then caught the bug like the flu. While that track is undoubtably pretty aces, the rest of the record is pretty Meh.

Ross rhymes harder and harder, which begs the question who he's paying to ghostwrite, as he is coming hard with the bars. I want to like Wale, but have yet to find anything that really works for me. The other two seem to be your average overly tattooed new school cats rhyming about the shit they have. I prefer my rap with some swagger, and everybody here can rhyme a least a bit, but it gets a little old over ten tracks, even with a banger like Tupac Back.

R