On the Drama Queen's latest retail joint, LL goes all "Last Real Nigga Alive" on us, and I'm a sucker for these kind of tracks where a rapper lets you behind the curtain and talks about the beefs and the industry and everything. He's still too flashy to really get too deep with it, and by the end he just starts rapping in Italian for some reason, but he drops some gems along the way. He's done plenty of faux-gangsta stuff before, but he's never done a real new-school NYC street joint with a soul beat before and it sounds really good, it's kind of a shame he's never done a whole album in this style and probably never will. His next album's supposed to be a party record with Timbaland.

8Ball & MJG - "Don't Make"

This is the song that "You Don't Want Drama" transitions to so beautifully at the end of the video. I really wish it was all one song, with 2 parts that both have that fuzzy synth sound. This one's not as catchy but has a cool "woo" chant that Diddy does weird hand motions to in the video. I like how 8Ball refers to himself as "fat boy" in both songs, I hope that's a running theme throughout the album and that at some point he does a rhyme about being the fat boy on Bad Boy. Apparently the album dropped already last week, which was surprising, I had no idea, these days I assume something's been delayed until the hype reaches a fever pitch.

R. Kelly - "You Saved Me"

I wanted to be with Kells on this one, I did, but I think using that bubble-pop snare on a song like this just blows any emotional investment I'm willing to put into it. The first time I heard him sing "the results came back and the doctor said I'm sorry you got cancerrrr", I couldn't help but bust out laughing, which probably makes me a terrible person, but it's ok because by the end of the verse, "doc says you can go home, cause all that cancer's gone"! But what do I know, my favorite inspirational R. ballad is "Gotham City".