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With Recovery, it becomes obvious that Eminem's richest albums aren't necessarily his most structurally sound, which isn't much of a surprise when considering the rapper's full-on embrace of flaws and contradictions. This lean, mean, bipolar machine began life as Relapse 2, but when Shady decided he wasn't really Shady at the moment, and that he was no longer keen on Relapse -- or the last two albums, as he states on “Talkin' 2 Myself” -- it became Marshall Mathers time again, so damn any 11th hour issues. This results in an album where a shameless but killer Michael J. Fox punch line (“The world will stop spinnin’ and Michael J. Fox‘ll come to a standstill” from “Cold Wind”) is followed by a song with another, less effective MJF joke (“Make like Michael J. Fox in your drawers, playin' with an Etch-A-Sketch”), although that song is the lurching heavy metal monster “Won't Back Down” with P!nk, and it could be used as the lead-in to “Lose Yourself” on any ego-boosting mixtape. Ignoring these contradictions, fans can feed on the energy, the renewed sense of purpose, and Marshall doing whatever the hell he wants, up to and including shoehorning a grand, D12-like comedy number ("W.T.P.," which stands for "White Trash Party") into this emotionally heavy album. It’s fascinating when Em admits “Hatred was flowin’ through my veins, on the verge of goin’ insane/I almost made a song dissin’ Lil Wayne” and then “Thank God I didn’t do it/I’da had my ass handed to me, and I knew it,” before sparring with said Weezy on the Haddaway-sampling “No Love.” When the recovery-minded “Going Through Changes” gets back on the wagon by sampling Black Sabbath’s very druggy “Changes,” it’s a brilliant and layered idea that’s executed with poignant lyrics on top. Add the man at his most profound (the gigantic hit “Not Afraid”) and his most profane (“You wanna get graphic? We can go the scenic route/You couldn’t make a bulimic puke on a piece of corn and peanut poop” from “On Fire”) plus one of thickest lyric booklets out of any of his albums and the fans who really listen are instantly on board. It may be flawed and the rapper’s attitude is sometimes one step ahead of his output, but he hasn’t sounded this unfiltered and proud since The Marshall Mathers LP, so to hell with refinement -- bring on the hunger and spirit of 8 Mile. © David Jeffries /TiVo

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With Recovery, it becomes obvious that Eminem's richest albums aren't necessarily his most structurally sound, which isn't much of a surprise when considering the rapper's full-on embrace of flaws and contradictions. This lean, mean, bipolar machine began life as Relapse 2, but when Shady decided he wasn't really Shady at the moment, and that he was no longer keen on Relapse -- or the last two albums, as he states on “Talkin' 2 Myself” -- it became Marshall Mathers time again, so damn any 11th hour issues. This results in an album where a shameless but killer Michael J. Fox punch line (“The world will stop spinnin’ and Michael J. Fox‘ll come to a standstill” from “Cold Wind”) is followed by a song with another, less effective MJF joke (“Make like Michael J. Fox in your drawers, playin' with an Etch-A-Sketch”), although that song is the lurching heavy metal monster “Won't Back Down” with P!nk, and it could be used as the lead-in to “Lose Yourself” on any ego-boosting mixtape. Ignoring these contradictions, fans can feed on the energy, the renewed sense of purpose, and Marshall doing whatever the hell he wants, up to and including shoehorning a grand, D12-like comedy number ("W.T.P.," which stands for "White Trash Party") into this emotionally heavy album. It’s fascinating when Em admits “Hatred was flowin’ through my veins, on the verge of goin’ insane/I almost made a song dissin’ Lil Wayne” and then “Thank God I didn’t do it/I’da had my ass handed to me, and I knew it,” before sparring with said Weezy on the Haddaway-sampling “No Love.” When the recovery-minded “Going Through Changes” gets back on the wagon by sampling Black Sabbath’s very druggy “Changes,” it’s a brilliant and layered idea that’s executed with poignant lyrics on top. Add the man at his most profound (the gigantic hit “Not Afraid”) and his most profane (“You wanna get graphic? We can go the scenic route/You couldn’t make a bulimic puke on a piece of corn and peanut poop” from “On Fire”) plus one of thickest lyric booklets out of any of his albums and the fans who really listen are instantly on board. It may be flawed and the rapper’s attitude is sometimes one step ahead of his output, but he hasn’t sounded this unfiltered and proud since The Marshall Mathers LP, so to hell with refinement -- bring on the hunger and spirit of 8 Mile. © David Jeffries /TiVo

It shouldn't be a surprise that Lumidee's Almost Famous sounds rushed and unfinished. Surely Universal accelerated its release to capitalize on "Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh)"'s success before its short shelf life expired or it had been downloaded by the target audience in total. With a contagious call-out hook and naive lyrics, "Never Leave You" is a fantastic summer single, and Lumidee's off-key singing agrees with most teens' own ability. The track appears twice, once in a single remix featuring Busta Rhymes and Fabolous. Lumidee claimed she sounds off-key because she recorded the song to a different backing track, but her thin voice is evident throughout the album. Her worst offense appears on "Suppose to Do," a trite "interpolation" of the "Theme From Mahogany." Otherwise, Almost Famous is simply so-so R&B that never recalls the single's appeal but is not the disaster that albums surrounding fluke hits can turn into. The subject matter dwells on boys' inability to be trustworthy repeatedly, and guest rappers add nothing but fluff, but it's no catastrophe. If Lumidee and producer DJ Tedsmooth were allowed time to develop their talents, Almost Famous might have turned out a lot less forgettable and more appealing to listeners past their teens. [Parents should be aware of the album's odd attitude toward editing. Drug references are edited out but the dreaded s word makes it through loud and clear. Uh oooh!]© David Jeffries /TiVo

Great thing about EPs is that you can make claims like "I'm Eminem, I'm Jay-Z" and only have to back it up with three or four more tracks. That's just what happens on Machine Gun Kelly's debut, which takes the hyped mixtape hero into the official world, which here is mega-official thanks to the EP's appearance on the Bad Boy label. That means the motor-mouthed MC from Cleveland gets Cassie to deliver the hook on the high-polish opener "Warning Shot," while superstar Wacka Flock Flame shows up for the hard-knocking, slowly lumbering party song "Wild Boy." "See My Tears" is a worthy soul-searcher somewhere between B.o.B.'s "Airplanes" and any of Eminem's early therapy sessions, while "Half Naked & Almost Famous" shows the man can deal with an electro/near-dubstep beat right before the closing "EST 4 Life" drops some insider lingo for the faithful. All this makes for one well-rounded EP, and with Kelly delivering deadly punch lines and keeping his Twista-fast pace throughout, Half Naked & Almost Famous is a desirable, quick glimpse of a scrappy mixtape maven successfully going legit.© David Jeffries /TiVo

Already established as a living legend in the Dirty South scene back when the movement was strictly underground, 8Ball set his sights on crossover success with Almost Famous. At the time of the album's release in late 2001, the self-proclaimed fat mack had almost made it there, as the album title confidently points out. Unlike his sprawling double-disc debut album, Lost (1998), this follow-up features only a few guests (Carl Thomas, P. Diddy, and Ludacris, most notably), emphasizing solely 8Ball himself instead. And indeed Almost Famous centers distinctly on the rapper, exploring his personal life in depth, both past and present. It's undoubtedly nice to hear 8Ball flow unaccompanied here, though you do miss longtime partner MJG at times. Even so, 8Ball could use a little bit more help, not from outside rappers but rather from his producers, who don't provide anything particularly exceptional to work with here in terms of beats or songwriting. 8Ball carries Almost Famous largely alone, and while the big man is more than capable of doing so, he sure could use some of the stellar production (courtesy of Swizz Beatz, DJ Quik, and Jazze Pha) that had bolstered his previous album with MJG, Space Age 4 Eva (2000). © Jason Birchmeier /TiVo

Great thing about EPs is that you can make claims like "I'm Eminem, I'm Jay-Z" and only have to back it up with three or four more tracks. That's just what happens on Machine Gun Kelly's debut, which takes the hyped mixtape hero into the official world, which here is mega-official thanks to the EP's appearance on the Bad Boy label. That means the motor-mouthed MC from Cleveland gets Cassie to deliver the hook on the high-polish opener "Warning Shot," while superstar Wacka Flock Flame shows up for the hard-knocking, slowly lumbering party song "Wild Boy." "See My Tears" is a worthy soul-searcher somewhere between B.o.B.'s "Airplanes" and any of Eminem's early therapy sessions, while "Half Naked & Almost Famous" shows the man can deal with an electro/near-dubstep beat right before the closing "EST 4 Life" drops some insider lingo for the faithful. All this makes for one well-rounded EP, and with Kelly delivering deadly punch lines and keeping his Twista-fast pace throughout, Half Naked & Almost Famous is a desirable, quick glimpse of a scrappy mixtape maven successfully going legit.© David Jeffries /TiVo