Taking their cues from Jay-Z, Eightball & M.J.G.'s latest opus aims for the panoramic, covering the vast spectrum from terrifying tales of the trifling hustler life to middling lamentations about the fates of their lives gone wrong. After four albums as a duo (not to mention their award-earning solo projects), the boys from Memphis do it better than most--which is inspiring because they joined forces in 1991, when "it was like a time they looked over Tennessee and didn't know hip-hop was in it" (from "Paid Dues"). Tracks like "Do It How It Go" and "Daylight" are classic Southern drive-time funk. Eightball & M.J.G. have more than paid their dues, having watched Southern-fried hip-hop get popular around them; guest shots from contemporaries like Outkast and the Goodie Mob's Cee-Lo, who sully themselves up to go grime for grime with their hosts, show just how far it's come. --Jon Caramanica