—T-Pain “Thr33 Ringz” - Village Voice Review
Back to the Strip Club With T-Pain
Another enchanted evening with r&b’s Mr. Roboto
By Ben Detrick

Despite his robotic voice, T-Pain is more human than most of his chiseled, bland, and utterly interchangeable peers in modern r&b. The former rapper from Florida has a mess of black/blond dreads, omnipresent shades, a taste for top hats and gobs of jewelry, and an uncanny knack for making proletariat anthems devoted to the easy escapism of drunkenness, sex, and strip clubs. The ability to repeatedly conjure up such brainless merriment has made him the undeniable king of urban pop radio. Through its title, the intro, and several skits, T-Pain’s third album, Thr33 Ringz, is vaguely built around a circus motif, and its star attraction is a showman who abides by one golden rule: Give the audience what they came to see. (more…)

—CD Review: T-Pain, ‘Thr33 Ringz’ - Expressnightout.com
Written by Roxana Hadadi

VIRTUALLY ALL SUCCESSFUL rappers have some kind of shtick. Jay-Z banks on the reliability of retirement; Kanye West is a pretentious, pastel-loving elitist perfect for college-age hipsters; and Lil Wayne milks his Promethazine-addicted, drug-addled image to his advantage.

Even for all that, though, you can’t deny their prowess — Jay-Z may be getting too safe in his old age, Kanye may use ghostwriters and Weezy may miss more concerts than he actually ends up performing at, but their appeal is grounded in some fundamental skill-set. Their images, as outlandish as they may be, are only the icing on their already talented cake. (more…)

—T-Pain: Thr33 Ringz - Sixshot.com Review

Featured Artists: Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Akon, T.I., Ludacris, Mary J. Blige, DJ Khaled, Musiq Soulchild, Raheem Devaughn, Ciara, Chris Brown
Article by: Serge Fleury

The culprit behind the revitalization of the vocoder/talk box, which has everybody following right behind him is back with his third album, simply titled Thr33 Ringz. Proclaiming himself as the “ringleader,” T-Pain actually starts this album off with his God-given voice on the ‘Welcome To Thr33 Ringz Intro,’ as he goes into rapper mode, and actually comes up with some decent metaphors, “T-Pain so active homie/the way the beat bump, n**as try to get Proactive on me.” (more…)

—Examiner.com T-Pain “Thr33 Ringz” album review

November 14, 8:19 PM

by Samantha Greaves

T-Pain’s album is full of two essential things; features and funny skits. The skits are what really saved this album from being a complete and utter train wreck and even those went a bit too far. T-Pain had a total of 15 features from artist ranging from Kanye West to Mary J. Blige on a 23 track album. I honestly forgot who’s album I was listening to for a moment because I was so overwhelmed with featured artists.

“Chopped N Skrewed” which is a song about being played and used was of course full of Auto-Tunes, T-Pain’s favorite tool; hey, that rhymes! I think that this song has become my guilty pleasure. It’s that song that I admittedly listen to privately and I secretly enjoy it. I like the lyrics and the beat. It reminds me of beats from the 90’s during the time when R&B super-groups Jodeci and Shai reigned supreme. Ludacris as usual adds character and pizzazz to the track.
“Freeze” which featured Chris Brown caught my attention immediately upon play. The beat is captivating but the over-use of Auto-Tunes once again, drove me practically insane. However, T-Pain does a great job at riding the track like a yacht in San Tropez. The beat-boxing on the track takes away from the essence of the song but the beat does a great job at distracting us from really listening to the lyrics. (more…)

Vue Weekly posted a brief Kardinal Offishall Not 4 Sale Review published on October 2, 2008…

MUSIC
New Sounds: Kardinal Offishall

KRISTINA DE GUZMAN / kristina@vueweekly.com
Kardinal Offishall
Not 4 Sale
(Geffen)

Kardi surely must have realized the irony of naming his fourth studio effort Not 4 Sale while working with the likes of Akon, T-Pain and Rihanna. I say, “Who cares?” I could listen to that infectiously aggressive loop on “Set it Off” all day long. (more…)

Artist: Colby O’Donis
Title: Colby O
Production From: Akon, Alex Teamer, C. “Tricky” Stewart, Clinton Sparks, Colby O’Donis, Georges, Tombstone, Giorgio Tuinfort, Kamau
Lead Single: What You Got

(more…)

—T’Cha Dunlevy of the Montreal Gazette published a review on Thursday, September 18 of Kardinal Offishal’s most recent album: Not 4 Sale (Kon Live/Geffen/Universal), giving it four stars out of five…

Photograph by : Universal Music Canada

Kardinal hits the big time

Sometimes patience, and especially perseverence, really does pay off.

Kardinal Offishall has soldiered long and hard on the Canadian hip-hop scene, carrying the reggae-rap torch, flirting with mainstream success, winning Junos for his work with the Rascalz and Choclair, and doing occasional one-off collaborations with U.S. stars such as Busta Rhymes and Method Man.
(more…)