Once upon a time I'd checked out every single English rap album in the top 200 hip hop charts here, so I thought I'd go back to it and see what I've been missing out on in recent times. In this album's case, not a lot. I don't like anything here much. As a rapper, Denzel isn't vocally distinctive or powerful, his anger doesn't feel authentic and it's full of cliche trap adlibs that he himself seems to hypocritically criticize on 'Percs'. I can play this without hating life and only get the urge to hit skip a couple of times due to some repetitiveness in the tracks and when Zel is annoying, but there is nothing I'll go back to.

This has been given a fairly good rep by many people the last week or so, but I don't think most of it compares to some other R&B we have heard this year. It starts well and finishes well with 'Neighbours Know My Name' and 'Yo Side of the Bed' (which reminds me of 'Purple Rain'), but there are quite a few average tracks in between. When these tracks do reach the climax it's not enough, and if they do, getting there isn't enjoyable enough. The good tracks provide entertainment though that are mentioned below. It's definitely worth a listen if you like his past material but I would recommend Ginuwine's, J. Holiday's, Chrisette Michele's and Joe's 2009 R&B albums to name a few before 'Ready'. Best Tracks: Neighbors Know My Name, Be Where You Are, Love Lost, Yo Side of the Bed, Black Roses

Better than his last album and one of the best real gangster rap albums I've heard in a while. I'm not calling Daz the most talented lyricist, as most of his songs are just about being a G,-but he does have a flow, voice and style which I've always enjoyed and that separates him from others. Coming off the chorus' on certain songs he sounds great. You won't love every song, but I recommend it for the best ones if you're into this/his type of music. The final track, 'Dat's Dat Nigga' goes particularly hard! Beats: ★★★★☆ Bars: ★★★☆ Best Tracks: Rat a Tat Tat, Strizap, Dangerous, Dat's Dat Nigga

Everyone knows 'Regulate', it is probably a track that got many people into hip hop, and is as much Nate's song as it is Warren G's. Apart from not having quite as big an influence on the genre, the same can be said for the following song. From there though, apart from 'This D.J.', (the three singles from this album were appropriately chosen) that is another classic, the album never reaches great heights. Another issue is that although he produced the whole thing, vocally I don't think Warren put his stamp on it. There are a lot of features and 'Super Soul Sis' doesn't feature Warren at all. Nevertheless, while I have been torn between 3.5 and 4 more so than with many other albums, the three classics and that the quality is never too low, means that this '94 release just scrapes in for four outta five. Best Tracks: Regulate, Do You See, This D.J.

It may be a hard market to sell to, but I just want to say that mid-nineteen hundreds music needs be mixed with modern day music more often. Personally I love 'Blue Eyes Meets Biggie' which is a mix of Sinatra and Biggie material and in my opinion works almost perfectly. This album, while not being as consistent, contains some good stuff that helps extend my belief. It tries to mix the great, charming voice of Nat with beats of many different styles that maintain a certain oldness to 'em from his era, but also use some of today's hip hop themes among other genres. The best tracks are great,. Largely 'Lush Life' and 'More and More of Your Amour'. Others particularly in the first half of the album (which feels more like something from his era) like 'Straighten Up and Fly Right', Day in Day Out, 'Brazilian Love Song', 'Hit That Jive, Jack' are also worth checking out. The tracks with the rap features are okay. 'The Game of Love' works better than 'Walkin' My Baby Back Home' where the rap which is at the end of the song doesn't really fit in. I'm a fan of Nas but to be honest 'The Game of Love' probably could have done without it also, but it works fairly well anyway. As the album moves on, you get more skippable tracks. The second half musically moves further away from the traditional 1950s jazz and doesn't work as well. The Marley brother's track 'Calypso Blues' and 'El Choclo' are okay... and then 'Pick Up' doesn't even feel like a song, most of it is just Nat and a chick talking to each other trading lines. After that, 'Anytime Anyday Anywhere' isn't bad with its soulful jazzy beat and then 'Nature Boy' finishes the album off with an Indie rock type of lo-fi beat behind it which doesn't do it for me. Overall, it's a mix of good and okay, as it is fairly broad from a genre point of view a touch like this year's 'The Spirit of Apollo', it's not surprising that it's fairly hard to like everything on offer. On the whole there is nothing too bad and I'd be happy to listen to this whole thing again even if there are only two to three really enjoyable tracks. Best Tracks: Lush Life, Brazilian Love Song, More and More of Your Amour, The Game of Love.