Grade: A-

The stellar fourth solo album from hip-hop super-producer 9th Wonder features an impressive display of both production and rap skills. Guest spots from Erykah Badu, Khrysis, Talib Kweli, Kendrick Lamar, Murs, Phonte, Raekwon, and Warren G round out the collection.
Full-time producer, part-time professor of a course entitled ‘Hip Hop in Context’, 9th [...]

Grade: B-
For years, Hip Hop fans have maintained a cautious admiration for Fabolous. He has proven himself time and time again as a more than competent mixtape maestro and a reliable “featured” artist. However, much like fellow mixtape heroes Cassidy, Joe Budden and Canibus, Fab has never quite been able to answer the age old [...]

Grade: B+
The filmmakers behind “Notorious” had a very unique and unenviable task before them: make a good film that will also appease the demands of fans of one of the biggest cultural icons in recent memory. The life and music of Christopher “Biggie” Wallace is almost like folklore in the Hip Hop community. Fans would [...]

Grade: A-
Nas’  9th album has been shrouded in controversy from day one. The album’s controversial title and lyrics started causing problems almost a year before a single copy hit stores. Everyone from Rev. Jesse Jackson to LA Reid to Bill O’Reilly to Newsweek Magazine and even members of the US Congress made their opinions (for [...]

Grade: A-
Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and Shay Haley first joined forces for one of the most impressive alternative albums of 2001, the uber-inventive In Search Of… Since then, the trio has come full circle. After 2004’s more traditional Fly Or Die proved to be little more than solid (both critically and commercially), the band is [...]

GRADE: B+
As the “pop” world reaches out its arms to Cee Lo Green and Danger Mouse, they instinctively pull back. If St. Elsewhere was their Frankenstein’s monster, then The Odd Couple is it’s terrifying killing spree.
St. Elsewhere was an album of twisted paranoia and doom disguised in the Trojan horse of an experimental party album. [...]

GRADE: A
“If I Were King” is a no-holds-barred, gritty and intense behind the scenes look at Sean John’s return to NYC Fashion Week after a 5 year hiatus. In terms of made-for-TV documentaries, it doesn’t get much better than this.
5 years ago, Sean “Diddy” Combs won CFDA’s Menswear Designer of the Year Award for his [...]

GRADE: C
Ray J, Ray J, Ray J… By all logic, there is no reasonable explanation for why this guy has been able to stay relevant for the better part of 11 years. He is far from a great singer, a D list actor (his last major film was the Shaq star vehicle Steel) and [...]

GRADE: B+
In case you have been living under a rock for the last 2 years, Day26 is the latest product of Sean “Diddy” Comb’s reality TV phenom, Making The Band. They are an R&B quintet made up of Michael “Big Mike” McCluney, Robert “Bitchassness” Curry, William “Shirtless Willie” Taylor, Qwanell “Dawn’s Boyfriend” Mosley and Brian [...]

GRADE: A
This week, ABC premiered its surprisingly relatable and entertaining remake of A Raisin in the Sun. Before you write off this 2008 remake as a Puff Daddy star vehicle,you may be interested to know that it was the first made-for-TV movie in history to be accepted into the Sundance Film Festival.
In case you [...]