Graduation-Kanye West review

I'm back to review a quite interesting album: Graduation by Kanye West. This album was half of what was called, "The Revival of Hip-Hop) in the sales race between Graduation and Curtis by 50 Cent. Kanye ended up winning the sales race, and also had more successful singles. Kanye West was in a position where he had a semi story line, depicting a gangsta like character who dropped out of college, (The College Dropout) then attempting to come back, (Late Registration) and finally graduating.(Graduation) What's interesting about this is it strayed from his previous styles of many skits, and off topic tracks. Kanye almost depicts a rap opera, with every track making sense. The opener of Good Morning shows a man that just barely made it through, Champion is the celebration song, and Stronger shows the hardships he went through. The album has gone double platinum and has spawned three Top 40 hits (Stronger, Good Life, Flashing Lights) with Stronger and Good Life reaching the Top 10, while Stronger topped the chart. Graduation however lacks consistency; a problem relevant in many rap albums. His strong songs are extremely strong, (Good Life, Can't Tell Me Nothing, Flashing Lights) while his weak points are very weak. (Drunk and Hot Girls, I Wonder) While the album lacks an element of consistency, it shows some things Kanye had never done before, and ventures out more musically, as seen in Homecoming and Champion, as they venture into pop-rock and R&B respectively. Then, what makes it good? The overall outlook of the album. It will take you a few times, but you end up finding a diversity of feelings, especially in the honor track to Jay-Z in Big Brother. Overall, the album conveys a strong, yet fun rap album that has party tunes, and songs you just might want to think about. Yet overall, for any hip-hop fan, or music fan for that matter, this is one you have to check out.

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

1. Good Morning

2. Champion

3. Stronger*

4. I Wonder

5. Good Life*

6. Can't Tell Me Nothing*

7. Barry Bonds

8. Drunk and Hot Girls

9. Flashing Lights*

10. Everything I Am

11. The Glory

12. Homecoming

13. Big Brother

The Marshall Mathers LP review

Sorry it's been a while, but I'm back to review one of the most influential hip-hop albums of all time, The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem. This album was released in May 2000, and as expected, caused much controversy. Many lyrics in the album were perceived homophobic (often use of the word faggot) and also misogynistic (often use of the word b***h). But, the controversy wasn't simply over that, it was over particular tracks on the album. For example, the track Kill You, ( Eminem was nearly stopped at the Canadian border for some of the lyrics in this song) there are lyrics such as, "Slut, you think I won't choke no w**re 'til the vocal cords don't work in her throat no more?!" Also, the track Kim cause much controversy because of its extremely violent nature, which is a depiction of Eminem murdering his then wife, Kim Mathers. So, if this album was so controversial, how did it go 9x Platinum? That is a common question, along with the wondering of how it was so critically successful. Rolling Stone initially gave the album a 4 star review, and four years later, changed it to a 5 star rating. The Marshall Mathers LP is a very drastic shift from where Eminem was on his previous, cartoony-like album, "The Slim Shady LP." Eminem shows more of his real self and less of his, "Slim Shady" persona. Eminem goes through a large variety of subjects, including his impact on kids (Who Knew), impact on media (Marshall Mathers, The Way I Am), past drug addiction problems (Drug Ballad, Under the Influence), and ventures into even more topics. What Eminem did that was so different, is that he put out a rap album that truly encompassed his thoughts. He gives off the careless impression and raps about many different subjects than typical rappers. This album shows great creativity, power, and emotion, that it's hard for anyone not to admire his work. This LP started to lead the way for success in Hardcore rap, followed by Jay-Z's "The Blueprint" which also received success and acclaim.

All in all, Eminem defined Hardcore rap by putting in real strength and emotion into his music. You might be a little creeped out at first, but it will grow on you.

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Track list:

1. Public Service Announcement 2000
2. Kill You*
3. Stan*
4. Paul(skit)
5. Who Knew
6. Steve Berman (skit)
7. The Way I Am*
8. The Real Slim Shady*
9. Remember Me?
10. I'm Back
11. Marshall Mathers*
12. Ken Kaniff (skit)
13. Drug Ballad
14. Amityville
15. B***h Please II
16. Kim
17. Under the Influence
18. Criminal

Super Mario Bros review

Super Mario Bros and its entire series doesn't just represent a video game series, it pretty much represents video games as a whole. When you say video game to a non gamer or casual gamer, they usually reply with, "Oh I play them sometimes, I like those Mario games." Why is this game and the rest of the series so important? Because, video games were not very complex to this point, and video games could've seen an end after the crash of 1983. But, Shigeru Miyamoto and the rest of Nintendo didn't give up, and released this game with the NES in 1985. All of a sudden, 40 million copies of this game were throughout America, and the game became part of culture. This game has quite a simple storyline, but at the time, this was one of the first games where there was all these large worlds. A plumber from the city named Mario and his brother Luigi are called upon to save Princess Toadstool from Bowser, the game's villian, in a common "damsel in distress" format. Mario and his brother must travel through 8 worlds with 4 levels a piece, and on the 4th level of each world, you fight an imposter Bowser (excluding World 8) and you save some Toads in every world except World 8, where you save Princess Toadstool from her prison like environment. This game was so different to others at the time, and really changed everything. Super Mario Bros. is a near perfect game, with great, addicting gameplay and with many hidden shortcuts. It's very impressive to play a game like this, and have just as much fun as some games are today. Besides the gameplay, Super Mario Bros has a great flow of difficulty, gradually getting a little harder as the game goes on. However, I did say "near-perfect," didn't I? Yes, I did, and there are some flaws, even considering the time period. If there was an award for most frustrating game ever, Super Mario Bros. would definetly be in the Top 5. There is one big problem with this game. You are given 3 lives at the beginning of the game and if you lose all of them, regardless of what world you are in, you go back to Level 1, World 1, which can be extremely frustrating to players who make it to World 5 and beyond. Another flaw, a minor one, is the graphical performance. Obviously, it's an 8-bit system and you can't expect great graphics, but the graphical capabilities of the NES are a little higher than what is shown on this game, as the still fire in the castles and general lack of any detail are very obvious, and the true capabilities are showcased in later NES games. Overall, Super Mario Bros, revived video games for good, and offers an extremely fun, addicting gameplay with a world bigger than any game that had been seen before this.

All in all, Super Mario Bros. changed and revived video games for good.

Rating: 4 and a half stars out of 5

Renegade

What to expect:

Music:

All other Green Day albums

All Third Eye Blind albums

Nevermind and In Utero by Nirvana

Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park

The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem

The College Dropout and Graduation by Kanye West

Elephunk by the Black Eyed Peas

Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt

Movies:

Avatar

The Green Mile

Billy Madison

Click

Saving Private Ryan

21

Schindler's List

Stepbrothers

The Hangover

Games:

All other Mario and Zelda games

Tales of Symphonia

Final Fantasy 7

All Super Smash Bros games

All old Spryo and Crash Bandicoot games

Dookie- Green Day review

Hello, I'm Renegade giving you my first review, this is of Green Day's Dookie. I have listened to this wonderful album many times and will now give a full on review of it. I will not do track-by-track and instead just review through it.

Here is the track list

1.Burnout

2.Having a Blast

3.Chump

4.Longview*

5.Welcome to Paradise*

6. Pulling Teeth

7. Basket Case*

8. She

9. Sassafras Roots

10. When I Come Around*

11. Coming Clean

12.Emenius Sleepus

13. In The End

14. FOD/All By Myself*

To this point, Green Day was a local band originating from the East Bay area in California. They were part of a local pop-punk scene with many bands, including Green Day themselves, and drummer Tre Cool's former band, "The Lookouts." Green Day inked a record deal with Reprise, which is a subsidiary of Warner founded by Frank Sinatra. With this, Green Day was posed to become a globally known band. And so they did. On February 1st, 1994, just 2 months and 4 days before the end of the most recent "game-changer." (Kurt Cobain's death marked the end of the Grunge headliner, "Nirvana.") With this album, Green Day introduced a very melodic, lyrically similar album. The album's subjects were about relationships, (Pulling Teeth, Having a Blast, Sassafras Roots) personal issues, ( Basket Case, Coming Clean) and drugs and boredom ( Burnout, Longview). If it is so lyrically similar, then why is this album so legendary? Because, just like Nirvana did a few years before this, Green Day changed the game and set the stage for rock music for the rest of the 90's, as not just Green Day, but Rancid and The Offspring were also a huge part of the pop-punk, post-grunge movement. While this 14 track album is lyrically simple and alike, Green Day exemplifies something that hadn't been done before. Green Day mixed simple power chords and radio-friendly melodies (Basket Case, When I Come Around) with lyrics that listeners can not just understand, but relate to. Green Day's move toward the top culminated in a peak of 2 on the Billboard 200, and the high-water mark for many bands, 10x Platinum. With the success, many original and regional fans claimed that Green Day "sold out" with the change of style. Green Day's first two independent albums were more aligned to teenage love and marijuana, while on Dookie, the lyrics get slightly more complex, with different subjects in mind. In the end, (no pun intended) Green Day began mainstream recognition for the genre, and at the same time put out an incredibly catchy masterpiece. Dookie has been critically acclaimed to high proportions, and has spot #193 on the Rolling Stone Greatest 500 Albums list.

Dookie wasn't part of a genre, it changed the genre.

Rating: 5 stars out of 5. Note: Asterisk next to songs on track list denote track pick

Expect the following to be reviewed by me soon:

Music:

All other Green Day albums

All Third Eye Blind albums

Linkin Park- Hybrid Theory

Nirvana- Nevermind, In Utero

Kanye West- The College Dropout and Graduation

Eminem- The Marshall Mathers LP

Red Hot Chili Peppers- Californication

No Doubt- Tragic Kingdom

Movies:

Avatar

The Green Mile

21

Click

Billy Madison

Stepbrothers

The Hangover

Saving Private Ryan

Schindler's List

Games:

All major Mario and most major Zelda games

Tales of Symphonia

Final Fantasy 7

All Super Smash Bros games

Most Guitar Hero and Rock Band games

Original Spyro and Crash Bandicoot games

Thank you for reading