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Hot on the heels of last Friday's much-discussed digital release of Dwayne Michael Carter Jr's way overdue fifth/final installment of the New Orleans rapper's long running series, this week comes the physical version of Lil Wayne's Tha Carter V (Cash Money). His twelfth studio album, Tha Carter V finally got released following years of disappointing delays and scheduling setbacks of the sequel to 2011's Tha Carter IV that's been reportedly completed and ready for release since 2014. Then finally last week, deliberately scheduled for release on the rapper's 36th birthday of September 27, 2018, Tha Carter V saw the light of day. With both older original V tracks alongside some brand new very recently recorded album tracks, Tha Carter V's release  resulted in a social media buzz and sales that led to the album been registered as the #1 Billboard 200 album this week. Reviews and social media posts about Tha Carter V focused on such things as the strengths of the overdue release notably such tracks as "Mona Lisa (feat. Kendrick Lamar),"  "Open Letter," "Let It Fly (feat. Travis Scott)," "Famous," and "Can’t Be Broken." There were also the inevitable comparisons to such superior installments as Tha Carter III, and recapping of Wayne's extended legal battles with Birdman and Cash Money that contributed to the album's delays.

Detroit hip-hop artist Illingsworth’s debut album for Mello Music Group, You're No Fun, dropped in this past week. Although the master beat maker / producer (and sometime emcee)  has been making hip-hop for many years already, as proven by his back catalog of underground releases both as a solo artist (including 2015's Doodles EP Worth The Wait LP) and part of the group Detroit CYDI, to many this is seen as his first official release. Hence why the artist, in a recent interview by phone from Detroit with the Amoeblog,  said he considers the album, “a kind of re-introduction to people who are familiar with the Mello Music label but not me personally. It’s for new listeners to get a feel for where I'm at.”  Whether it’s the a listener’s first intro or a re-introduction, You’re No Fun is a powerful album that showcases the artist formerly known as Doc Illingsworth’s talents as both producer (his primary role) and mic spitter (his second love). Boasting 17 tracks, 14 are all instrumental while the 4 vocal tracks feature him solo on two and in the company of  emcee talents Open Mike Eagle and Denmark Vessey respectively on the two others; “Peeves” and “DnD”.