Eve

So here's the thing: I love Laila's Wisdom. It's one of my personal favorite albums of the decade. Is this as good as Laila's Wisdom? No, but it's still great. Rapsody is one of the only female rappers truly sticking up for black women in their music. She names each song on the album after an important black woman (Michelle Obama, Nina Simone, Oprah Winfrey, Hatshephut, etc.), and the largest theme here is empowerment.

The production is handled by some of the best beatmakers in hip-hop currently in 9th Wonder, Eric G, Khrysis, and Nottz. That would explain why it sounds great. The features are also great, as GZA, D'Angelo, J. Cole, JID, Leikeli, and others don't feel out of place. However, my personal standout feature was Queen Latifah, as she decided to stop with that weird dance music sound she was doing a few years ago and just rapped. She sounded as good as she did back in the 90s, and the song she was featured on was all the better for it.

There aren't any duds in the tracklist, Rapsody came through with another excellent project, albeit one slightly below the lofty heights of Laila's Wisdom. I'm looking forward to where she goes from here, as she's shown that she can do no wrong.