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8.0
63298
8.0 |
All Music
This is business as usual, and business is absolutely gangbusters
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8.0
63294
8.0 |
NME
There’s no doubting that the beats on Mastermind ... are exceptional, lush and bombastic and full of zaftig soul samples. So, really, it’s all down to Rick and whether he shows up. And he does
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7.0
63300
7.0 |
Slant Magazine
Mastermind scales back on the absurdity, settling for familiar modes like Biggie roleplay (on the shameless, fascinatingly derivative "Nobody") and soporific self-pity
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7.0
63293
7.0 |
Rolling Stone
All the pieces of a game-changing rap LP are there, just a little jumbled
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7.0
64312
7.0 |
The Music
Ross has transformed from one of hip hop’s greatest frauds to one of its greatest guilty pleasures
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7.0
64454
7.0 |
PopMatters
The pieces tie together, and at the end of the day, there’s no denying that Mastermind is a fun album
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6.7
63302
6.7 |
A.V. Club
With its gritty raps and loud soul interjections, Mastermind is the closest he’s come to making a straightforward New York-style rap record
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6.0
63597
6.0 |
The Independent
His bland cocaine narratives lack the compelling authenticity of Nas’s
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6.0
64043
6.0 |
Q
Lacking in real drama. Print edition only
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5.8
63295
5.8 |
Pitchfork
He’s badly in need of reinvention after running out of recipes for his gangster shtick, but he’s too set in his ways to change direction six albums in
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5.0
63296
5.0 |
Consequence Of Sound
If the 62-minute Mastermind is bloated, it’s a healthy, controlled bloat
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5.0
63701
5.0 |
Beardfood
Mastermind? Hardly. More like a D-lister
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5.0
63304
5.0 |
Spin
This is Ross at his least cohesive and most clueless since his 2006 debut, Port of Miami. He has finally, totally lost himself in malleable self-mythology
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