The intro "Here We Go" is short and kind of meaningless while the first real song "The Return", which is produced by DJ Premier of Gangstarr is a dope banging track which uses scratches and samples for the chorus: "Grand Puba, Lord Jamar, Sadat X, Alamo. Raised in the ghetto singing songs for survival. Give a shout if you know what I'm talking about!" Every other phrase is from another record! It's amazing! It reminds me of his work on "The Rep Gets Bigga" from Gangstarr's album "The Moment Of Truth".The beat is dope as well as Sadat X's rhyme.

"Shinin' Star" is basically a song which gives hope to the ghetto children: "You don't have to drive a fancy car just for you to be a shining star. No matter who you are, no matter who you are". It's a cool song but so extremely different from the last Brand Nubian album that it is almost shocking.

"The Beat Change" is one of those rip-the-mic-no chorus-songs which uses Fab 5 Freddy's "Change The Beat". It's cool. "

Don't Let It Go To Your Head" is an amazing song. So honest and much needed in the modern hip hop industry. Not only does it deal with the attitudes of young rappers but the woman who let their beauty go to their head. Sadat X steals the show on this one again. It has a mellow beat and clean scraches which sound as smooth as liquid. This is a great song.

The other good tracks are the following: "Brand Nubian" which is a slow but cool track which uses a call-response chorus for added dopeness. The guitar loop is cool and the spooky at the same time . "Probable Cause" is really cool and deals with how police can just pull over innocent African Americans. It has a dope beat and teaches you too! "Back Up Off The Wall" featuring Loon is pretty cool with it's piano loop. It has commercial appeal without being wack. Sadat X steals it with a wild style in the begining of the joint.  "I'm Black And Proud" uses James Brown and bounces all the way through. The beat is dope and has a pure hip-hop call/repsonse chorus."Straight Out Of Now Rule" is strong song with has Sadat X talking in the background. You can hardly hear what he's saying but it still adds a cool effect. Once again, Sadat X takes it at the end. This is one of the most hardcore songs of the album. It's violent without being offensive. "Foundation" has Grand Puba singing the chorus. This is another slow song but kind of groovy. It's cool. "U For Me" is a pretty cool song which finishes the album up. Pretty slow but gives a feeling of strength within the Brand Nubian camp. The most dissapointing songs are the following: "Maybe One Day" featuring Common Sense is very slow and depressing. Only Puba and Common are on this track with Jamar and Sadat no where to be heard. It's kind of boring though the sitar sample sounds cool. It basicaly shows how bad things are in the ghetto and how hard the struggle is. It's a righteous song with some hope but just misses the mark.

Unfortunately, when I hear the song, I press the skip button."Let's Dance" features Busta Rhymes and is a complete cross-over song. Though the rhymes of Sadat X and Jamar are very hard in the subject. The beat and the female chorus just sounds wack. Busta Rhymes only does the chorus too. He sounds cool (as always) but the it's a complete 360 degree change from his last appearance on a Brand Nubian album. On "Everything Is Everything", Busta did the chorus on a joint called "Alladat" which is a chaotic and wild song... so hardcare in it's sentiments that it was rarely played on the radio. It was a great song with an intense beat and great rhymes totally done by Sadat Z and no one else. On "Alladat", Busta yells: "F*ck those n*ggaz who think they alladat! They think they alladat! They think they alladat!" Now, Busta wants you to dance and get down on "Let's Dance": "Let's dance! I know you got the feeling! Let's dance! Come on, get down!" What's going on? "Love Vs. Hate" is another slow, dissapointing song which tells us that we should start loving one another. I think the sentiments are good but it gets drowned out in the rest of the slow songs on here. The same happens with "Sincerely" which is about their love for their black woman in their lives. It's slow and has peaceful sentiments but just gets lost and boring in the slowness. But that's not all. The absolute worst song on this album is "Too Late".. Oh my God! This is completely horrible! The female vocals are cheesy and the beat is wack. The first couple of seconds that the song kicks in, I just start laughing because it sounds so bad. It's a blatent cross-over tune which is an embarresment. Even though it is very upbeat,  it should not be on the album at all. The interludes are just from movies like "Don't Be A Menace To South Central..." and "Rhyme & Reason" and should be hidden before or after tracks.

There is 16 complete songs on the album while there are 20 tracks.  This is a good album. It's not terrible (minus "Too Late") and Brand Nubian can rhyme well. Every rhyme is intelligent. You can tell that they put plenty of thought into their rhymes. It is also refreshing that they don't rhyme about Versace and getting paid. They love money but they don't have songs just about getting it. The main problem for me is the change. I was so into loving the hardcore 5% Nation Of Islam lifestyle from "Everything Is Everything" and "In God We Trust" that it became dissapointing when they went back to their first album's style. I like Grand Puba, don't get me wrong, but he's on too much of the album. He sings most of the choruses when they don't have someone else doing it for them. Sadat X should be on the album more and they should have had Busta Rhymes kick a verse on the track "Let's Dance" instead of just having him do the hook. How do you go from songs like "Lick Dem Muthaf*ckers" and "Pass The Gat" to "Love Vs. Hate" and "Let's Dance"? Now, unlike before, Brand Nubian is for the children and they want to be role models. This is obviously Puba's influence. They were so hard when he was not in the group that their music scared people who weren't use to hardcore music. Most of this album does not have the potential to do that. In my opinion, DJ Premier should have done way more than just one of the songs. Production wise, "Foundation" is tight and full with good beats (though slow for many songs). On their last album,"Everything Is Everything", the songs were slow too but the beats were "pancake fat". There was also much more live instrumentation. This album would be so much more doper if they brought back those "pancake fat" beats and a more hardcore rhyme.  No one rhymes bad on this album! They just don't rhyme as hard. See, I like Sadat X the best because of his honest and loose style which is very street orientated. Jamar and Puba sound too preachy that it's almost condisending. Sadat X just does his thing, maintains, and set it straight while the others want to be holy. If you are looking for a righteous album with positive messages for black youth, this is for you. If you want strickly hard, smoked out jams, try "Everything Is Everything" or "In God We Trust". Well, until next time, I'll be waiting for Sadat X's next solo joint. Brand Nubian's "Foundation", it's a righteous album.
Beats: 7/10,
Lyrics: 8/10,
Production: 8/10,
Flow: 7/10,
Originality/Creativity: 8 /10,
Hardcore rating: 5/10
. [ Overall Rating :  7.2/10 ]
-Todd E. Jones