Kanye West, the Chi-town producer/rapper who's crafted hits for Alicia Keys, Ludacris, Jay-Z, and Twista, centers his disc on a familiar rags-to-riches motif, but like Will Smith before him, he adds his own black middle-class sensibility to it. "School Spirit" pokes fun at all the college-educated flunkies who didn't follow their dreams. The College Dropoutis a must-hear lesson in turning personal triumph into banging hip-hop with universal appeal.

2Pac Loyal To The Gameincludes the lead single "Thugs Get Lonely Too" in addition to 11 other previously unreleased songs and 4 bonus tracks. Featured Artists include 50 Cent, Jadakiss, Lloyd Banks, Nate Dogg, Obie Trice, Outlawz, Ron Isley, Sleepy Brown, and Young Buck.

When The Beastie Boys hit platinum with their debut album, they were instantly labeled the Elvises of rap, accused of being just another bunch of white musicians stealing from black music. But what was overlooked was that the Beasties actually had some interesting ideas to take hip hop to new levels. While in the years to come other white rappers like Vanilla Ice and Jesse Jaymes would prove they were the true cultural thieves, the Beasties defended themselves by recording a seminal rap album, PAUL'S BOUTIQUE. The record was, in fact, so legit that it eroded their commercial appeal in middle America. PAUL'S BOUTIQUE is a sample-fest--a post-modern epic of cut and splice studio wizardry. Taking snippets of music from sources as disparate as Curtis Mayfield, The Beatles, B.D.P., The Ramones and The Jaws soundtrack (as well as countless others), they built songs out of the debris of modern culture. Over these mind-blowing tracks, they weaved tall tales, self-promotional proclamations and sheer non-sense into a singular vision of inspired lunacy. Besides Public Enemy, no one else was producing albums as complex as this. PAUL'S BOUTIQUE sounds two or three years ahead of its time, perhaps this is why the album was considered such a failure upon its release. Whatever the case, there really is no album that sounds quite like this one does; the Beasties returned to the top of the charts a few years later with CHECK YOUR HEAD, but they may never be able to top the originality and depth of their stunning sophomore effort.

The Black Album, Jay-Z's tenth and final solo disc, features tracks by Pharrell and Dr. Dre. Cross promotional tie-ins to the disc include the simultaneous release of Jay-Z's S. Carter sneaker in black and The Black Book, an intimate view into the rapper's private life.

On Curtis, his third major label album, rapper 50 Centgives no quarter. As hard and brutally honest, yet musical and entertaining, as his first two albums--each of them #1 Pop, #1 R&B/Hip-hop and at least seven times platinum--50 Cent (aka Curtis Jackson) tells it like it is on Curtisand makes the resulting controversy pay as he heads "Straight to the Bank," the title of the album's first street track. Curtis(Shady/Aftermath/Interscope) features guest appearances by Eminem, Akon, Justin Timberlake, Mary J. Blige, Robin Thicke, and Nicole Scherzingerfrom the Pussycat Dolls.