<div align="center">

Rittz - Next to Nothing</div>

Explode: 4/5
-Rittz comes in his trademark flow here on this track and tears this beat apart. With a hard hitting flow, delivery, and lyrics, Rittz bursts onto the scene on this album with great bars like, "Write about the past, try to live in the moment / Same past where the happiness was the missing component". However, what does hold this track back are two things in particular. For one, I am not a huge fan of the hook. It is fine, but it just doesn't really feel like it fits musically with the verses. On top of that, through his southern accent and his quick pace, it was admittedly hard to understand Rittz at many times on this track, which is too bad.

Turn Down: 4/5
-In contrast to the hook on the first track, I love the hook here. Just gets me completely hyped and ready for this track. Rittz's flow and delivery here are great as usual and he does very well over what is solid production. Lyrically, the beginning of the second verse is my favorite portion. "Turn up, turn up / All they ever say is turn up / They know me all around the world, Australia to Europe / There’s levels to this shit, and I’m a different caliber of / MC, and you're the kind nobody's ever heard of / Don’t try to play the leader, Hannibal will murder Murdoch". In addition, this portion from the third verse is great, "You can listen to my first album / And see where some of these double time rappers got their whole style from". As a whole, this track is not necessarily extraordinary in any way, rather it has a lot of good parts that just make it a good track as a whole. Good start so far.

Also, just as a note, I love that he commented the lyrics on Rap Genius and at the end of his comment, it says "Sent from my iPhone". Rittz the type of dude to leave that at the end. Noooo.

Crown Royal: 3/5
-Rittz slows things down a bit for this track that is an ode to alcohol, in particular Crown Royale. The beat is solid and the hook is fine. In terms of Rittz, his flow and delivery are fine and the lyrics work well, but nothing about this track excites me or inspires me to write about it. Overall, the track is just kind of...a song. Its got nothing particularly bad about, it's just boring.

Laf: 4/5
-On the negative first, I don't really like the hook. Rittz goes hard on it for sure, but it just all seems very uninteresting and does nothing for me. However, luckily, that is the only negative. He goes in on the verses. I'd quote my favorite portion, but see no point in quoting the entire first verse. He rips other rappers to shreds on this track and flexes his muscles lyrically and shows just how smooth his flow and delivery can be. Overall, if this one did not have the hook it had, I would enjoy it more, but sadly, I cannot. Great, great verses on this one though.

Bounce (ft. Twista): 4/5
-Slowed down beat on this one and damn is it smooth. I love the little voice sample at the beginning of the track and hook, really sets the mood well for the track. For Rittz, I really love the lines, "Looking at the globe from up high, shots fired / Like Kennedy was riding by the Grassy Knoll" and "Bumping 8 Ball & MJG, from the outside looking in / I'm sitting on top of the world, but then again I kind of been lately / When I pull up in my Cadillac, my speakers got that rattle back". From Twista, "Biology of a pimp, it be in the DNA / To know what you thinking / I’m speaking to you like a psychic", really stood out to me. I don't think it's an amazing bar, but just really popped for me, I guess. From both, they both had good flow, delivery, and solid lyrics. As with the rest of this album, nothing truly extraordinary on this track and this album is shaping up to be a good album all the same so far.

Living a Dream (ft. Trae the Truth): 3.5/5
-Very, very nice beat on this one. Bumps nicely and is extremely easy to vibe to. Rittz also does very well on it and flows perfectly over it. Lyrically, he stays strong here with lines such as, "Im rappin I should be cracking inside of a crème brûlée / It's like I'm pinned against a cage, fightin' in the MMA" and "Other rappers, I'm not the dude booin' while you at bat / Cause I still got a pill problem / My dollar bills still got a film on 'em / Feeling like some loser trash". Trae the Truth comes in and drops a pretty normal verse. Nothing great, but just kind of there and ultimately feels like excess to the track unfortunately. Without that verse and a another Rittz verse instead, this one would be better.

In My Zone (ft. Mike Posner & B.o.B): 4.25/5
-Really digging Mike Posner's hook here. I love his collaborations with Rittz, as he always has extremely smooth hooks that work perfectly for the track and this one is no exception. I also love the writing on the hook. Works very well and his vocals on it are particularly strong. Lyrically, Rittz does well, with bars like, "Getting' paid doing music now, I'm putting' huge amounts / Inside a few accounts, I got a crew that's down / In case you wanna come and duke it out / If I was you, I'd throw the deuce and bounce / And we just blew an ounce / My hotel room looking like a hookah lounge", standing out to me in particular. His flow and delivery are also characteristically strong and while I do not always love what he says, his flow just always has my attention. On his guest verse, B.o.B turns back to his more hardcore rap days here. In particular, I love the way he delivers the lines, "A practitioner, practice until I master it / Passionate 'bout my adjectives, syllables so elaborate / Anything less to describe me is just inaccurate / You're a student of classes in which I am a graduate / Immaculate vernacular, Batmobile look like Dracula / Giving these boys the blues while telling these hoes to saddle up". The fact that Rittz was able to get a good verse out of B.o.B is worthy enough to give this track a good rating, haha. Overall, this track can count its success to the Posner hook and to the flow/delivery of the two rappers here.

Call 911: 4.5/5
-An incredibly dark track, Rittz flexes his storytelling abilities on this one as it paints a very, very clear and disturbing picture of the two situations he's describing. Honestly, it's bone chilling to listen to his verses and to the 911 calls on the track, like this seems more fit for a horror movie. The beat is perfect for this track and there is not much to say here, since I'm not about to quote stuff out of context. I really do love this track. Rittz does great and, most impressively, does a great job generating incredible imagery for this track.

Basket Case: 4.5/5
-A very personal track for Rittz, he says a lot of great and personal things on this one. In particular, the bars, "I'm my own worst critic and I gotta write a album / But I keep hating on myself, it's like I get obsessed / Cause I hate what I write, say something tight / I be thinking too much wondering what they gonna like" and "I ain't half as paid as you think, when I tell 'em what the price is / To get me on a record they act like it's too expensive just to pay me a G / And I'm starting to feel guilty / Cause I'm known as the guy who never quit and never gave up his dreams" really resonated with me. As a whole, the verses are all very good and I love the hook. The delivery is questionable, but the material on it is perfect and the lyrics of "I'm my own worst enemy the energy I have's a waste / Cause I use it battling myself cause I'm a basket case" and "Staring at this glass of whiskey, wishin' I would pass away / But I'm always wishing for the worst cause I'm a basket case" really hit me. As a whole, really good track here from Rittz as he shows everyone that being famous does not really much for you financially or emotionally.

Profit (ft. Yelawolf & Shawty Fatt): 3.25/5
-Hate, hate, hate the hook on this track. However, luckily, the verses are good. Love Yelawolf's flow in particular on this track and his delivery is smooth as hell as usual. He also got a chuckle out of me on the line, "Make a ping pong ball jealous of the bounce". I'm unfamiliar with Shawty Fatt, but he was good as well. He's certainly not as talented as either Yelawolf or Rittz, but he's just fine. From Rittz, he did fine on this track as well, in particular I love the line, "I’m like a great white shark in this aquarium". This was the first single released for this album and feels like it and feels like a reach for radio (I didn't look, but I doubt it quite reached that). I am not particularly fucking with it, but the verses were good and the beat was fine. I guess it just never really clicked for me.

Going Through Hell (ft. Mike Posner): 4.75/5
-Good God is the hook on this track smooth as hell. Thank you Mike Posner for singing one of my favorite hooks of the year. Holy cow is this hook amazing. I don't usually quote hooks, but I will this time: "Driving Cadillacs through the ATL / Trying to make it to Heaven / So I'm going through Hell / Nobody knows my pain / So my cup is full / I'm trying to make it to Heaven / So I'm going through Hell". Honestly, the verses take a backseat to this hook, but they do still warrant a mention of course, especially since Rittz is kicking some personal shit on this track with lines like, "Fighting with my girl, things are looking bad / I'm thinking she's fucking her ex and I just whooped his ass / My knuckles are bleeding all over the dash in my Cadillac" and "Hate when people preach, faithfully believe in Jesus / Recently The Devil won't leave me be / My lady just told me she pregnant and begging that we can keep The baby that she conceived / I wouldn't consider it, told her we got to get rid of it". Like, damn is stuff getting deep and personal and it's hard to not appreciate that. Due to the hook and the meaningful verses, this is the best song here.

Wish You Could: 4.5/5
-This beat fucking bangs. The minute it kicked in, it was impossible not to move at least a little bit to it. Man does this thing ever go hard. On top of that, Rittz murders it. Bars like "She known to twerk it like she working on the stripper pole / A playmate, face, body like a centerfold / I get her hooked, leave her squirming on my fishing pole / I get a stack of Benjamins up in a envelope" and "Haters, they don’t really want no beef, nah / Heaters turn a hater to a vegan, now beat it / I beat them up and leave them on the cement" work very well. On top of that, Rittz's delivery of the hook is perfect and keeps the pace and energy very high. As a whole, I wholeheartedly fuck with this track thanks to Rittz's flow, delivery, and this beat like damn son.

Blow: 4/5
-Boy does Rittz ever love cocaine. As with his last album, there has to be at least one track dedicated to his adventure with nose candy. The beat is nice on this track and Rittz does a great job flowing over it. In addition, while there is not much depth to go to when rapping about cocaine, Rittz does well lyrically and in particular with his flow and delivery. I don't love tracks entirely dedicated to drugs, but this one works well and this type of track is absolutely in Rittz's wheelhouse. He also does a great job capturing the struggle of being an addict at the end here, as he claims to not be an addict and that he doesn't need another line, right before he requests another. Undeniably powerful.

White Rapper: 4.5/5
-Great beat on this one that works perfectly for Rittz and he rips it apart as he touches on the struggles of being a white rapper and shows his ability to tells a story yet again. The lines, "Perform for 5 people, or 20 at best / Sending demo tapes to labels, a ton of rejects / A ton of fake record company execs saw my talent / And tried their best to convince me they had some to invest / And just wasting my time, phony managers scamming us / Girlfriend and family, the verdict unanimous / To "Stop rapping you piece of shit, it’s not happening / Now act white and grow up, are you trying to embarrass us?" really sum up the struggle he faced very well and are very much powerful, as you realize this is something that happens to 100's of new artists on a weekly basis. On this track, Rittz has a great flow, delivery, and his lyrics and storytelling ability are top-notch. Damn is this dude ever slept on.

Turning Up the Bottle: 4.5/5
-Another example of Rittz's storytelling, this one tells the story of a troubled couple, all summed in this perfectly elegant and beautiful hook, "Everything is bad, but it all seems OK / When we're turning up the bottle / Trying to see the sun but the sky seems so gray / Drowning in our sorrow / Oh, oh, o-oh / Turning up the bottle / Oh, oh, o-oh / Drowning in our sorrow". The beat is pretty much just a background noise here and the entire spotlight is focused on Rittz here and he captures that attention brilliantly with great lyrics, a touching and interesting story, and great flow and delivery. Very good closing track to what was a good album.

61.25/75 -> 4.08/5

After thinking his previous album, The Life and Times of Jonny Valiant, was one of the better albums of 2013, I was hoping that Rittz would live up to my newfound expectations on this album and deliver another good project. Overall, he absolutely did so and has left me satisfied. A stellar storyteller and a master of flow and delivery, Rittz continues to make me question why he is so slept on and why it took me so long to review this album. With great tracks like "Going Through Hell", "Wish You Could" and "White Rapper", Rittz absolutely delivers here, even though the first half is largely pretty lackluster and lacks a truly standout track. However, the great second half more than makes up for that.