There were no new albums in the top ten last week, but this week another new hip-hop album debuts in the top ten, this time at #7. Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version by Ol' Dirty Bastard was his debut solo record. He was a member of Wu-Tang Clan from its founding until his death in 2004.

This review is basically a repeat of my last review. Like 2Pac, I was never into Ol' Dirty Bastard (nor Wu-Tang), and listening to this album hasn't changed my mind thirty years later. I acknowledge that Wu-Tang and Ol' Dirty Bastard are important to the history of hip-hop, and that alone means they're worth listening to at least once, but I'm just not into them.

There were no new albums in the top ten last week, but this week a new entrant rockets to #1. I was never that into 2Pac, and listening to this album this week hasn't changed my mind. I acknowledge that he was one of the best at his craft, and I like some of his contemporaries in hip-hop, but for whatever reason 2Pac just doesn't do it for me.

Considering his historical importance it's probably worth your time familiarizing yourself with 2Pac, but I personally don't endorse his music.

This week we drop down to the #7 album Cocktails by Too $hort. Before listening to this album I had exactly zero Too $hort plays recorded on last.fm. I recall him being somewhat popular thirty-ish years ago, but clearly I haven't thought about him much since then.

Thirty years later, I can't say that his music has grown on me. It's quite misogynistic and explicit about how he treats women. Don't get me wrong, I don't subscribe to moral panics and music. I don't think that just because I don't like this music it should be banned, censored, or otherwise. A lot of music tells stories, which includes boasting, and there are different ways to do that in different musical genres. I just don't dig his way of telling stories, and his stories don't interest me.

My recommendation is to skip listening to this album. Instead, why don't you spin up Wildflowers by Tom Petty? It peaked at #8 in December 1994, and dropped down since then. I didn't review it because other un-reviewed albums were higher during the holidays, which was a shame. Wildflowers is a far, far better album than Cocktails, and it deserves your attention. Links to various streaming services are below 👇🏻.

Hitting #4 on debut (which is as high as it will rise), Tical by Method Man is a bit of mid-90s hip hop that I never really paid attention to. Method Man is a member of Wu-Tang Clan which has been very influential for the last 30 years. I never really paid attention to Wu-Tang clan, either.

Before listening to this album, I had eight plays of Method Man on last.fm. It's up to 17 plays now, and I think it will stay there unless he gets thrown into some auto-generated mix I listen to. I like some hip hop, but even thirty years later, Method Man doesn't do much for me.

Debuting at #1, we have another movie soundtrack. I've reviewed soundtracks before and in a few ways it's different.

As far as I can tell, all of the big songs on the album (Murder Was The Case, What Would U Do?) appeared on other albums released before this album. Previous chart-topping soundtracks featured songs only available on the album.

Another difference is the album is longer than the movie for which it's named. The movie is only 18 minutes long, while the album is over an hour long.

As I looked through the track listing, I took a double take at the artist on the 6th and 11th tracks, Jewell. I had to check it wasn't Jewel. Both Wiki pages have "Not to be confused with Jewel(l) (singer)." at the top for obvious reasons.

Overall, I find this album fairly boring. Like the Above The Rim Soundtrack I previously reviewed, most of this is typical mid-90s rap. I think this album can be left to history.

A few weeks ago I reviewed the Above the Rim Soundtrack. This week's album, Regulate… G Funk Era, also includes the hit "Regulate" which propelled that earlier album to high sales. Regulate… is at #3 this week.

Overall this album is decent mid-90s West Coast Hip-Hop. As I wrote in the earlier post, this album is worth quite a bit more than the Above the Rim soundtrack. So listen to this one, and ignore the other one.

Coming in hot and debuting at #1, Ill Communication is one of Beastie Boys best albums. On the Wikipedia page, the genres listed are Hip hop, New York Hardcore, Jazz, Funk, and Punk, which shows the breadth of the music on this album.

I've never really been big into Beastie Boys, but sometimes I do like to listen to hip hop and Beastie Boys are definitely among the places I go for that. This album is one that should not be forgotten and deserves to be replayed. Check it out!

This week I need to drop down to #3 to pick a new album. This is the soundtrack for the film Above the Rim, a movie I have not viewed. It has a middling rating on Rotten Tomatoes so I probably won't seek it out. It also doesn't seem to be on any streaming service I subscribe to, which makes the effort too much, anyway.

Listening to the album I think there are only a couple reasons why anyone would have bought the album:

• Tupac Shakur starred in the movie and there are three songs on the soundtrack that he presumably made for the film that were not available on any of his albums.
• The only genuine hit off the album is "Regulate" by Warren G. and Nate Dogg. The stand-alone album by Warren G., Regulate... G Funk Era, with the song didn't come out until June 1994, so the only way to buy the song at the time was to buy this album. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I think I actually purchased a copy of the Warren G. album largely for this song.

All the other songs on this album are forgettable. There's a fairly pointless cover of the Al Green song "I'm Still in Love with You." When I write "pointless," I don't mean it didn't fit into the movie (it may have and I'll never know), I mean that the cover doesn't do anything the original doesn't already do. I'll bet the cover was cheaper to license. All the rest is pretty standard mid-90s hip-hop – songs where the artist states their name and the label they're signed to, etc. Granted, for a movie soundtrack, it's probably okay having some more generic music so it doesn't distract from what's happening on screen or with any dialog.

My final words are that this album can be left to the dusty piles of history. If you want to listen to "Regulate," listen to Warren G.'s album. If you want to listen to Tupac, listen to his multiple acclaimed albums which have better songs than what he made for the film.