AZ is not a well known artist in the mainstream rap but his flow and words are better than half of the artists that get regular airplay on the radio and tv like Ludacris (wack), Nelly, and JaRule just to name a few.  His words rank up with some of the best today like DMX, Drag-On, Project Pat and Jay-Z but nothing along the ranks of 2pac.  AZ has been through alot since his last album Pieces of A Man.  He's been fired from his last label Virgin for lackluster sales but has always spit tight rhymes.  He is part of The Firm along with Nas, Foxy Brown, and Nature and is the tightest rapper their.  But anything he seems to be on fails in sales but is one of the hardest cds of the year.  Illmatic which some rap listeners say is the best rap album of all-time (which the best is All Eyez On Me/2pac) is the worst selling Nas album to date. His debut Doe or Die is a great cd that is his best selling to date and his cd Pieces of A Man got him thrown off his label.  He was on the Firm and which is arguably one of the best groups of the 90s recieved great reviews but bad sales. Lately, the only thing he's been on thats sold well is Stillmatic.  So you could call this his comeback cd with banging tracks like Everything's Everything and the hit Problems which both recieved mild airplay. This is his best cd to date.  The cd starts out with one of the greatest intros I have heard where he spits one of the hardest rhymes on the cd where he apologizes with being with NAS on the watered down thug songs.  He spits, "forget sales/long as the streets accept me/it's respect before the money" that's how the rap game should be looked at not like how Cash Money and Lil' Troy look at it. That's wrong.  Then the hardhitter What Cha Day About hits talking about what AZ's been doing since he's been out of a label.  AZ has been really trying to go platinum he's been all over the country promoting this disc and in the Source talking about his recent label problems but he hasn't gone over to trying to be a weak wannabe rapper and appeal to the Pop-Rap listening group.  He's kept in real streets before money he says althrough his interviews.  The only song that is soft and doesn't fit on the cd is AZ's Back a Pop-Rap kind of song.  Hopefully, when AZ's new album Aziatic drops June 11, 2002 it will be as hard as this.

Beats 9/10 Lyrics 9/10

Best Song: Problems

Worst Song: AZ's Back

AZ's Necklace (above)

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