UBN, Channel 94. Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill......

Welcome to the Minstrel Show, hope you enjoy it. I know I did. Little Brother has been one of my favorite underground groups, and one of the few that comes from the Eastern part of the US. In their second full album, they put together a true masterpiece in the form of......A television show.

This is one of the few albums I've ever come across in my life that I have listened to and have found nothing wrong with it what so ever. Everything is on point, from Big Pooh and Phonte rapping untouchable lyrics track after track, to the great production from 9th Wonder, to the guest appearances from Joe Scudda, and Elzhi from Slum Village. There were no fillers on this album (There couldn't be since this was supposed to be like a TV program), so don't worry about pressing the next button. Every track was my favorite, such as the song "Cheatin'" which featured Percy Miracles and Mr. Diggs satiring the song "Busted" by The Isleys. The skit "5th & Fashion" was also funny (Produced by Nicolay, supposed to be a commercial).

I really enjoyed listening to "The Minstrel Show" and it was hard to hear it go off, but its okay.

I can't wait until the next episode......

When Kanye West first came out with College Dropout some years ago, I liked what I heard on the radio. So when I got a chance to listen to the CD itself, there wasn't really much left to listen to, due to the many skits, and most of the songs being played on the radio already. I only liked three songs on that album. Besides that turn of events, I still liked Kanye as a producer (especially a producer) and an emcee.

Therefore, I was excited for his next album "Late Registration", and when I got to hear, I really think that it was I that wasn't hyped up enough for it. This album was great, or even, dare I say, perfect. No, I shouldn't say perfect, because there's two songs on here that kept it from a perfect 10.

Now, of course, all the songs on here are produced by Kanye, with the exception of Touch the Sky, which was well done by Just Blaze. However, He collaborated heavily with Jon Brion, who I know is known in other genres that I myself am not too familiar with. Brion worked with West on songs such as Addiction, Heard 'Em Say, and "Diamonds From Sierra Leone", which was a three man production of Kanye, Brion, and Devo Springsteen.

One thing I enjoy about Kanye is that he's able to do songs with so many different people. For example, the second track, "Heard 'Em Say" features Adam Levine from the group Maroon 5. On paper, that sound like a bad idea, but the song turns out to be success. He brings back GLC and Consequence from the last album, GLC being on "Drive Slow" with Paul Wall, and Consequence going to work on "Gone" with Cam'ron. He gives Common his own verse on "My Way Home", and Nas says something on "We Major". The Game was supposed to have a verse on "Crack Music", but due to the content on the verse (Still talking about G-Unit), the verse was cut and the only thing you hear out of Game is ten words on the chorus.

My favorite songs list is long. "Crack Music" is one of my favorites. "Gone" is one of the few times I like Cam'ron, and Consequence was lethal. "Heard 'Em Say" stunned me with the addition of Adam Levine fitting in perfectly. Roses, Drive Slow, Addiction, Touch the Sky, Hey Mama, Late (The hidden track), pretty much I liked all the songs on the CD.

Except........

I had a problem with "We Major". Nas was good, Kanye was good, and the collaborating production between Kanye and Warryn Campbell was good, but there was somethin that I wasn't feeling. Really Doe only does the chorus and I still don't know why it had to clock in at 7:28, most of that filler coming from Tony Williams, the back-up vocalist, singing the same thing over and over.

My major problem was with the song "Diamonds from Sierra Leone". I liked the original, which had Kanye attempting to speak about "blood diamonds", but really pondering about his Roc-a-Fella family. I had an problem with the remix. Kanye trys to talk about "blood diamonds" again, and fails, again. I liked the fact Jay-Z was on it, but it seemed a lot like Jay-Z only walked into a studio for a couple of minutes, did the verse, and left, and whoever put his verse in, just crammed it in between Kanye's verse. It seemed so out of place, and I didn't mind skipping that song.

Aside from that, I really enjoyed listening to Late Registration, I'm glad that there weren't too many skits, and I hope his next album, which I think is called "Good Ass Job", is just as good.

The first time I ever heard about Miri Ben-Ari was when I saw her in the video for Twista's Overnight Celebrity. I had liked the ending part of the song with the violin in it, and when I heard it was her, I knew she was good. Otherwise I didn't hear much about. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know she had an album until I stumbled across it in a record store. I took a look at the tracklisting, which was filled with established rap and R&B artists, and decided to give it a listen.

I listened to the album straight through, and overall, its decent. Now this isn't on Miri's part whatsoever. Ben-Ari gracefully intertwined her violin with hip-hop beats in ways I didn't know would work. This faults mostly come on part of the featured artists or the producers.

The first song I heard was "We Gonna Win" with Styles P. Even though The L.O.X. and D-Block are some of my favorite artists, I really wasn't into this song. Despite the fact Styles and Miri came together with "Violin Strings and Words of Truth", I was nearly falling asleep.

Thankfully the next track woke me up, Jump & Spread Out. It's a party track, yes. I was nodding my head through the whole thing. I enjoyed the "Get up and move" verses by Vicious, and I always smile at the very loud Fatman Scoop. (I heard this guy has some albums, really? All he does is scream.)

Some other notable tracks I wouldn't mind hearing again would be "Hold Your Head Up High" with Lil Mo, "Sunshine and the Rain" with Scarface and Anthony Hamilton, which was a very deep song coming from Scarface, "Miss Melody" featuring Akon, "Lord of the Strings", which was a spoken word by J. Ivy about the great Miri Ben-Ari, and the collaboration with Doug E. Fresh for "The Star-Spangled Banner". It's interesting, and worth a listen.

My favorites, and my reasons for loving this album, was "Fly Away" with Musiq Soulchild, Fabolous, and Kanye West, which was just a beautiful song all around, "4 Flat Tires", which had Baby Lil Wayne, and Six Shot doing there thing for the South, "She Was Just A Friend", which had Anthony Hamilton and Algebra singing, and "I've Been Waiting For You" which had Consequence spit two verses, and John Legend on the chorus.

My two reasons for not giving this album a higher rating would be "New World Symphony" with Pharoahe Monch and the Reggaeton remix to "Jump & Spread Out". I like Pharoahe Monch, but I wasn't feelin that song, even though the production was done by Kanye. And the Reggaeton remix was putting me to sleep even though it was a "Get Up and Move" type of song.

Overall, this was a pretty good album with a lot of songs that I would like to listen to. Miri Ben-Ari did her part in proving that she was, indeed, a "Hip-Hop Violinist", but some of the emcees and rappers didn't exactly pull their weight.