Perfect placement too, with the song falling right in the middle of the track listing. Alori Joh is a perfect fit for the album and brings a whole new energy to the album. When Phenomenal” first jumps in and the voice of Alori Joh belts out the hook I was hooked right away. “Crazy” brings in a whole new vibe of funk with a guitar riff looped up and an aggressive lean to the lyrical delivery. Schoolboy Q is definitely a master at building a song with energy and intensity as it advances from verse to verse. Don’t push the needle over though as the energy again picks up as the song builds. The production and Schoolboy Q’s delivery both had me thinking that Drake was going to jump in with a verse at any moment. “To The Beat” sounds like it is a reference track for a future Drake song. Regardless, this is easily as dope as any Black Sheep album. Something about Schoolboy Q’s delivery and voice or maybe his cadence keeps reminding me of Black Sheep, but I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is that keeps drawing me back to Black Sheep. “Cycle” has a throwback flava with the breakbeat looped up under the record. “Druggies Wit H*es” featuring fellow label mate Ab-Soul is a perfect follow up to continue the vibe, but with a little more energy. This breaks all of my normal complaints about songs lasting longer than 4 minutes…I could lay back and leave this one song on repeat all night long. Without a doubt “Bet I Got Sum Weed” is easily one of the highlights of the album. It has that mellow flash of Isaac Hayes funk that just makes you want to lean back and blow trees. “I Bet I Got Sum Weed” has been my favorite Schoolboy Q track since the first day I heard it.

“What’s The Word” is lead single material easily. Then we quit fuckin’ around and the Jay Rock collabo “What’s The Word” drops in and I immediately have my favorite (at least to this point). The record is cool, but the hook reminded me too much of some Kanye West vibe and I’m done with that. Then at the 1:45 mark the energy lifts off and the second half of the song wins me over. To be honest it reminded a lot of a Kanye West song primarily because of the hook.

“Light Years Ahead” features the also heavily hyped Kendrick Lamar so my expectations were set pretty high, bit it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. “Kamikaze” rips in and the energy lifts a notch with the repeated loop of the horns and a more aggressive delivery from Schoolboy Q. 'Figg Get The Money' reminded me of Black Sheep with the production and Schoolboy Q's delivery. So finally we get the highly anticipated 'Setbacks' album from Schoolboy Q and right away when the needle drops I'm lovin' it.

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