Three years after the release of The Recession, Young Jeezy returns with his latest album TM:103: Hustlerz Ambition, available now. Since then, the landscape of hip-hop has shifted with the rise of artists including Drake, J. Cole, and Big Sean. Does Jeezy still have a place among the current crop of MCs? Find out what the critics had to say about his comeback.

The New York Times: To his credit he’s not mired in old modes on this album, which shows off a more mature Young Jeezy while not quite aging him. The changes are thematic, in part, but also technical. He’s also a better, more accessible rapper than he has been in the past, but this is actually a step backward.

USA Today: Jeezy’s rhymes have lost none of their hard-core edge; the only question is whether fans will still find them inspiring. 3/4

Rolling Stone: Jeezy stays stubbornly true to form on TM:103, rapping with minimal embellishment about getting rich (and high), treating beautiful cars poorly and beautiful women worse. The beats, produced by Southern luminaries like Drumma Boy and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, are full of imperious synthesizer pageantry, rumbling bass, and frenetic percussion. 3.5/5

Los Angeles Times: What he sacrifices in innovation he compensates for with focus and precision. His ad-libs and punch-ins still slap with ominous Old Testament brutality… Don’t call it a comeback; he’s been feared for years. 3/4

Washington Post: On an album littered with guests, one of Jeezy’s best attributes is made all the more clear—for a rapper, he’s nearly peerless when it comes to delivering hooks, harsh croak and all. Every chorus sounds like a triumph and almost makes you want to chew on fiberglass and try to shout along.

Rap-Up’s Favorite Tracks: “What I Do (Just Like That),” “I Do,” “F.A.M.E.”

Rihanna doesn’t plan on going anywhere. With her LOUD album still sitting on the charts, the pop princess extends her reign with her sixth album in six years Talk That Talk, available now. Today’s biggest hitmakers including Dr. Luke, Bangladesh, Stargate, The-Dream, Ester Dean, Alex Da Kid, and No I.D. deliver their best on RiRi’s raunchiest record yet. Did she satisfy critics with tracks like the salacious “Cockiness (Love It)” and her chart-topping single “We Found Love”? Find out below.

The New York Times: Talk That Talk, her sixth album, is maybe the first to suggest the place that’s been hiding in plain sight all along, placing Rihanna squarely at the center of the pop genre best suited for a singer of her fundamental evanescence: dance music, which conveniently is the mode du jour of contemporary R&B and pop.

USA Today: But probably the most potent ingredient in the mix is the Barbadian singer’s charisma. With her knowing naughtiness, she keeps the constant innuendos from becoming tiresome. They seem to come with a wink and a smile. 3/4

Rolling Stone: Rihanna’s sixth album is her tightest, most assured yet—a relentlessly catchy and danceable pop album, with first-rate contributions from top songwriter-producers. It’s also Rihanna’s smuttiest record by far. 3.5/5

Entertainment Weekly: It’s a relief to find that on her blissed-out sixth album, Talk That Talk, she’s stopped trying to play it so tough. … She’s still got two token I-like-it-rough tracks—”Birthday Cake” and “Cockiness (Love It)”—but they’re just filler on an album that’s all about dragging you out of the bedroom and onto the dance floor. B+

Los Angeles Times: Even the slower songs feature double-snare riddims that suggest energy, even when paced down; overall, the bass is heavier, the sounds are nastier, and by the second half of the record, Rihanna’s intentions are decidedly, unapologetically …. hornier. Call it Technotronic on steroids, Lady Gaga on Viagra, Millie Jackson on ecstasy: These are pumped-up hits aimed at the pelvic region. 2/4

Chicago Tribune: A couple of tracks show the kind of progression and depth that typified Rated R: the electro-acoustic, No I.D.-produced anthem “We All Want Love” and “Drunk on Love,” in which Rihanna lets a little vulnerability creep in over a haunting break beat from British minimalists the XX. Otherwise, Talk That Talk sounds like a rush job designed to keep Rihanna rolling through the holidays. 2/4

The Boston Globe: We turn to Rihanna for kicks, sure, but also, thanks to a voice whose limitations give her a supple vulnerability, for a tinge of bittersweet pain. Talk That Talk is at its best when it’s working that angle, as on chart-topping advance single “We Found Love.”

Rap-Up’s Favorite Tracks: “We Found Love,” “Talk That Talk,” “We All Want Love,” “Watch N’ Learn”

He achieved commercial success with his 2010 debut Thank Me Later, but that wasn’t enough for Drake. The 25-year-old Canadian rapper-singer digs deeper on his sophomore album Take Care, grappling with fame and pouring out his emotions over the moody collection, with contributions from Rihanna, Stevie Wonder, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, and more. Did he win over critics the second time around? Find out below.

USA Today: Drake deserves props for elevating his woe-is-me lamentations to a game-changing, bar-raising challenge to the heavyweights of pop, dance, hip-hop, and R&B. While Take Care‘s emo-rap won’t set fire to dance floors, hip-hop this soulful, smart and diverse tends to blaze its own trail. 3.5/4

Rolling Stone: Where Thank Me Later was airy and spare, Take Care truly goes for it with luxe, expansive production. … It’s what Drake does best, collapsing many moods—arrogance, sadness, tenderness, and self-pity—into one vast, squish-souled emotion. 4/5

Entertainment Weekly: It’s possible to lay out all your psychological issues on a commercial rap album—Kanye West does it all the time. What Drake needs is a few more punchlines to brighten up his monochromatic therapy sessions. C+

Los Angeles Times: The template here, and for essentially the entirety of Drake’s young career, is Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak. Drake shares West’s love for mood and never-ending existential analysis (80 minutes of it, to be precise). “Marvin’s Room” showcases Drake’s talents for both: he recounts how his sexual conquests are destroying his love life, sounding lost in murky, synthesized soul. 3/4

Chicago Tribune: With Take Care, Drake refines the formula. By refusing to indulge in the macho poses that have dominated mainstream hip-hop for decades, and blurring the line between singing and rhyming, he becomes instantly divisive—and occasionally he gets defensive about it. “Showing emotion don’t make me a [wimp],” he protests. 3/4

The Boston Globe: Some will insist it’s boring, listening to a young star complain about being a star. But Take Care is not about that; it’s about a person growing into himself, and smarting at the sacrifices required of all of us—famous or not—as we leave adolescence behind and grow distant from people we used to love. It may be mopey, but Drake is finding new words for ancient kinds of pain, and it is captivating.

SPIN: With Take Care, Drake has his accelerated Kanye West moment—when a little too much ambition and all the asshole feelings he’s got inside coalesce into an insular, indulgent, sad-sack hip-hop epic. 8/10

Rap-Up’s Favorite Tracks: “Crew Love,” “Take Care,” “Make Me Proud,” “Doing It Wrong”

After a two-year wait and mounting expectations, Jay-Z’s 26-year-old protégé J. Cole gets off the bench and steps into the spotlight with his Roc Nation debut Cole World: The Sideline Story, in stores today. The North Carolina MC assembles an all-star team of talent including Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Drake, and Trey Songz on the 16 tracks. Does the hip-hop freshman have what it takes to play in the big leagues? The critics weigh in.

Rolling Stone: He’s a technically superb rapper, packing these sleek, snappy, mostly self-produced tracks with dozens of great punch lines. But while he tries to wring pathos out of everything from career struggles to unplanned pregnancies, the melodrama feels rote; the rhymes hit the mark but the stories leave you cold. 3.5/5

Entertainment Weekly: Bigger names in hip-hop have released albums this year, but few trump this debut. Cole, who’s been studying under label head Jay-Z for two years, seems to have learned plenty. Cole World: The Sideline Story is a well-rounded effort, and deeper than most, offering cuts that tackle unplanned pregnancy (“Lost Ones”) and uncertain love (“Nobody’s Perfect”). B+

USA Today: After waiting nearly two years for his mainstream debut, Jay-Z’s protégé shoulders the weight of expectations with a confident first effort. The North Carolina rapper tells his story of struggle and triumph with incisive rhymes over soulful beats that, for the most part, Cole produced himself. 3/4

The New York Times: Cole World captures the struggle between Mr. Cole’s natural gifts and the perceived exigencies of the marketplace. On this album he’s a slick rapper who spends too much time shouting and a thoughtful rapper who wears his bawdiness awkwardly.

Los Angeles Times: Even opposite Jay-Z in “Mr. Nice Watch” J. Cole sounds assured of his skills—and of the uncommon detail he brings to an otherwise familiar rags-to-riches narrative. But J. Cole’s early-onset veteran status also saps some of the energy you’d hope to hear on a debut as feverishly anticipated as this one, especially in cuts like “Never Told.” 2.5/4

The Washington Post: Cole is a deft rapper, clever but not obsessed with his own cleverness, interested in au courant beats but not fixated on them. There’s nothing particularly dramatic about his debut—it’s simply a better version of albums that get made all the time. Cole makes good songs almost great, and makes filler tolerable.

The Boston Globe: The story goes that Jay-Z told Cole he had his whole life to make his debut album. Cole may have taken that literally, but it was worth it.

Rap-Up’s Favorite Tracks: “Can’t Get Enough,” “Sideline Story,” “Nobody’s Perfect,” “Breakdown”

Lil Wayne puts on his graduation cap and marches into stores with Tha Carter IV, the follow-up to 2008’s multi-platinum Tha Carter III. The Young Money captain unleashes his long-awaited ninth album with help from Drake, Rick Ross, André 3000, John Legend, Nas, and more, who fill out the 15 tracks on the standard edition. After years of anticipation and several delays, did C4 live up to the hype or fall short? The reviews are in.

USA Today: But now that it’s finally here, Weezy has packed the lineup with more than enough repeat-worthy tunes to make it worth the delays. … He comes armed with a steady stream of punch lines (“When it Waynes, it pours”) over banging beats. 3.5/4

Rolling Stone: Weezy doesn’t have the same speed-demon intensity he had five years ago—and he’s just as casual and sloppy about his approach to official album releases. … The best parts of Tha Carter IV range from “President Carter,” an anti-war rant over a spooky harp loop, to the spaced-out Rick Ross duet “John,” where Wayne says, “If I die today, remember me like John Lennon.” 3.5/5

The Washington Post: Nothing else on Tha Carter IV comes within miles of ["6 Foot 7 Foot"]—and Wayne seems to know it. He already sounds fatigued on the second track, “Blunt Blowin’,” which mutates Aerosmith’s “Dream On” into a club-friendly shape.

The Boston Globe: Wayne makes no attempt to be inventive. “Megaman” sounds like “Ransom,” a three-year-old throwaway that was used more to introduce the world to Drake than anything else. Drake, by the way, offers up a ridiculous hook for “She Will,” but the song sounds like it was split at birth with T.I.’s “Poppin’ Bottles.”

Chicago Tribune: The years-in-the-making Tha Carter IV is designed to restore Lil Wayne’s reputation, but it falls short. At his best, Wayne was positively psychedelic in his wordplay, capable of creating entire alternative worlds out of a few surrealist metaphors. But he sounds slower, more methodical, less unhinged on Tha Carter IV. 2/4

SPIN: We won’t hold Tha Carter IV against Lil Wayne. He remains a compelling artist and a standard-bearer for a generation of endlessly productive rappers. But nothing lasts forever. Weezy is dead. Long live Weezy. 6/10

The Village Voice: Looking for the truly bizarre references and star-eating tendencies of Wayne’s best work? They’re absent on C4, replaced by an apparent interest in being America’s most proficient Blood (“Blunt Blowin’”) who is also an ace cunnilingus performer (“So Special”) and frequent sober strip club denizen (“She Will”).

Rap-Up’s Favorite Tracks: “6 Foot 7 Foot,” “Nightmares of the Bottom,” “She Will,” “So Special”

There’s never a dull moment when it comes to Game. Whether he’s calling out his peers on his fiery record “Uncle Otis” or crashing the L.A. Sheriff’s phone lines with a tweet, he never fails to entertain. But the Compton MC puts aside the shenanigans and drops his fourth LP The R.E.D. Album in stores this week. The long-delayed effort features heavy hitters including Dr. Dre, Lil Wayne, Drake, Chris Brown, Young Jeezy, and Nelly Furtado. Did Game represent for the West Coast? Find out what the critics are saying.

USA Today: Assisted by heavyweight cohorts (Dr. Dre, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg), Game invigorates West Coast rap with grit, ferocity, vivid rhymes, crushing beats, and even a hilarious and vicious sci-fi romp in “Martians vs. Goblins.” 3/4

Los Angeles Times: In stark contrast with such charm merchants as Jay-Z and Lil Wayne, Game’s low likability is no impediment to his art; indeed, The R.E.D. Album, his fourth studio set, succeeds not in spite of his character flaws but because of them. 3.5/4

The Washington Post: He raps with an all-out relentlessness and simply wills many tracks to success. “Ricky” and “Born in the Trap” have no guest spots, but Game as gangland storyteller is enough to make them album highlights. Next time, he should spend more time reminding listeners who he is, as opposed to who he’s not.

The Boston Globe: The Compton MC’s fourth album has been delayed more than a Terrence Malick film, but it reestablishes The Game’s relevance with torched-earth verses and his ability to work with diverse superstars to make a supremely coherent and well-executed set.

The Village Voice: When there is a firm hand reining him in, Game can still make good rap music. Left to his own devices, however, he produces a dismaying mess.

The Associated Press: In all, R.E.D. is one of Game’s most balanced albums since his debut in 2005. After four albums, he continues to prove that he is a dominating force from the West Coast.

Rap-Up’s Favorite Tracks: “The City,” “Martians vs. Goblins,” “Good Girls Go Bad,” “Mama Knows”

“Tonight, I want to tell you guys my story,” Beyoncé divulged to a sold-out crowd at New York’s Roseland Ballroom last night. The 90-minute, guest-free show, the first of four this week, found the 29-year-old diva splitting the difference between hushed torch singer and stadium belter, running through a 30-minute revue of her greatest hits before performing virtually all of 4, her latest album released earlier this year.

For a singer long accustomed to stadiums, Sunday’s show was the most intimate performance most fans would see from the ubiquitous superstar. Backed by a 20-piece, all-female orchestra, including a conducted string sextet, three-piece horn section, three backup singers, and a harpist, the singer devoted the first third of the show to a “VH1 Storytellers”-type greatest hits showcase-cum-history lesson. If you didn’t know Beyoncé’s biography before—auditions with Destiny’s Child starting at age nine, her father’s early and frequent involvement managing his daughter’s career, getting dropped by Elektra, etc.—she laid bare her entire musical history starting with a Michael Jackson obsession at age five. Opening with Jackson’s “I Wanna Be Where You Are,” the singer interspersed minute-long snippets of her greatest hits both as a solo artist and with Destiny’s Child, stopping each track to discuss her life and mindset during each stage of her career.

After recalling her father’s interrupting of an audition for numerous labels because “they’re not ready yet,” B talked about entering the studio by herself at 18, hearing Stevie Nicks’ guitar riff for “Edge of Seventeen” that would inspire “Bootylicious,” and how the last years of Destiny’s Child were a “reality show like ‘Survivor.’” “It was trying to figure out which member would be the last one on the island,” explained the singer.

The medley combined the quick blasts of a Las Vegas revue with the emotional candor of a singer-songwriter performing to a near-empty room. It was an odd, yet effective juxtaposition; a global superstar who could effortlessly shuffle between slick, bombastic R&B and awkwardly honest confessions of a tumultuous career. By the end of the set though, humility, as one expects from a singer with 16 Grammy awards and more than 75 million records sold worldwide, turned to sly confidence. “[The label] told me I didn’t have one hit song on my album,” she said of her 2003 debut Dangerously in Love. “I guess they were kinda right. I had five.” With the exception of a slowed-down, jazzier version of “Crazy in Love,” the orchestra augmented rather than transformed the tracks, as if deviating too much from the recorded versions would violate the victory lap feel of the show.

“1+1,” the opening song on 4, found Beyoncé kneeling atop a piano, her coy, torch singer poses bumping up against wind machines and spotlights beaming from above the singer’s head. The contradiction was emblematic of the set, as the deservedly entitled diva shared space with her populist alter-ego. For every fog machine, there was a 3,000-person sing-along; for every extravagant light number, there was a heartfelt emotional moment. Tonight was Beyoncé being all things to all people without pandering or condescension.

Performing the album virtually front to back (“Start Over” was curiously left off Sunday’s setlist), the singer displayed both the stamina and vigor that makes for stadium-perfect shows. “End of Time” and “Run the World (Girls)” utilized flamboyant light displays to bring elaborate routines to a smaller stage, though most of the time, Beyoncé viewed the reduced space as advantageous over limiting. B ended the last song—the self-empowering ballad “I Was Here”—with “Roseland, we were here.” In less confident hands, the line would’ve come off as hokey. For Beyoncé, it was the recognition of a singular event before returning to the stadium.

–Jason Newman

“4 Intimate Nights with Beyoncé” Setlist:

“I Wanna Be Where You Are” (Michael Jackson cover)
“No, No, No (Parts 1 and 2)”
“Bills, Bills, Bills”
“Say My Name”
“Independent Women”
“Bootylicious”
“Survivor”
“’03 Bonnie & Clyde”
“Crazy in Love”
“Dreamgirls”
“Irreplaceable”
“Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”
“1+1”
“I Care”
“I Miss You”
“Best Thing I Never Had”
“Party”
“Rather Die Young”
“Love on Top”
“Countdown”
“End of Time”
“Run the World (Girls)”
“I Was Here”

Like a kid on Christmas morning, hip-hop fans rushed to iTunes to download Jay-Z and Kanye West’s blockbuster album Watch the Throne as soon as it went on sale Sunday night. The hip-hop kings assembled a royal lineup of collaborators including Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, The RZA, Swizz Beatz, The Neptunes, Q-Tip, and more to create the year’s biggest rap release. But was it able to live up to all the hype? The reviews are in.

USA Today: Star collaborations don’t always work out as well in practice as they do on paper (see: Jay-Z and R. Kelly). But in this case, they’ve created an artistic Throne that other rappers can aspire to. 4/4

Los Angeles Times: The album’s highlight, and an instant classic, is “Made in America,” a solid, slow-paced Frank Ocean-teamed jam about the American dream that reveals the main difference between West and Jay-Z: humility. … On Watch the Throne, the two kings prove much more nimble and disciplined, displaying a confidence that suggests they’re not going anywhere. 3/4

The Washington Post: Jay’s most diamond-encrusted verses might give us the guts to fantasize beyond our means, but most of us will never actually touch that kind of wealth. Meantime, West continues to invest in the power of ego—something a recession can never take away. Because of that, Watch the Throne is his album.

Boston Herald: Watch the Throne has been hailed as a second coming. Instead, it’s a great hip-hop album with the flaws we’ve come to expect from Hova and Yeezy—both giants have delivered revolutionary rhymes and mainstream mediocrity. B+

New York Post: Watch the Throne is neither West’s nor Jay-Z’s best, but count it as a success, especially getting two performers as dynamic and egomaniacal as this duo to mesh into a cohesive team.

Chicago Tribune: The production is often stellar, favoring West’s soul-dusties sensibility, with snippets of James Brown, Otis Redding, and Nina Simone. But it rarely takes the kind of chances West routinely takes on his solo albums. Instead, the idea is to create an album that lives up to its royal billing, a gilded collection of potential hits with lots of hooks and plenty of branding opportunities. 2/4

Rap-Up’s Favorite Tracks: “No Church in the Wild,” “Ni**as in Paris,” “New Day,” “Made in America”

Kelly Rowland forges her own path with her third solo album Here I Am, hitting stores today. The Destiny’s Child diva calls upon hitmakers Rico Love, Tricky Stewart, Jim Jonsin, Rodney Jerkins, and RedOne, as well as Big Sean (“Lay It on Me”) and Lil Wayne (“Motivation”) for the collection of R&B-dance tracks. Did Kelly sing her way into the good graces of her critics? Find out below.

Entertainment Weekly: Her third solo album, Here I Am, proves that Ms. Rowland is doing just fine on her own, thank you; it’s a solid if unambitious set of medium-hot finger snappers highlighted by the lusciously slinky top 20 hit “Motivation” and the robo-groove of “I’m Dat Chick,” on which she brags, “Yeah, I be the one that they love to mention.” If she learns to take a few more risks, that may just end up being true. B

USA Today: As it turns out, Here I Am is something both safer and cannier than that. Capitalizing on her successful collaboration with producer/DJ David Guetta—with whom she teamed two years ago on the international dance hit “When Love Takes Over”—Rowland emphasizes electro-savvy grooves and sleekly sensual production over introspection or chutzpah. 2.5/4

The New York Times: But Here I Am is something much more confident and more surprising. It’s a chewy and moody R&B album on which Ms. Rowland sounds assured and vital. Or, at minimum, is made to sound that way.

Los Angeles Times: She does herself no favors by choosing consistently bland material, and her third album does nothing to dispel the sense that Rowland should be more selective. There’s a deflated, defensive quality to Here I Am, starting with the lead track, “I’m Dat Chick.” 1/4

The Washington Post: Her third solo album, the perfectly likable, club-centric R&B outing Here I Am, won’t convince anyone that Rowland has a personality, but luckily for her, she no longer needs one: Call it the Attack of the Rihanna Clones, but these days killer beats and a flat affect trump all. Rowland, free of the need to actually be interesting, makes the most of it.

The Boston Globe: Since Rowland is trying to define her singularity here, it probably would have been wiser to move away from a rote ballad like “Keep It Between Us” and some diagramed arrangements that feature hot MCs like Big Sean or Lil Playy putting punctuations on lyrics. They sound like new iterations of the formula set out for many other female pop and R&B artists.

San Francisco Chronicle: It’s no surprise to find that her third solo album is an unremarkable, pedestrian pastiche of current R&B radio, jumping from unconvincing self-affirmation anthems (“I’m Dat Chick”) to hopelessly submissive hip-hop cuts (“Lay It on Me”). The material exhibits none of the depth or silky sheen of her former outfit or its breakout leader, but instead settles for something a little more crass that not even the outstanding “Motivation,” the hit collaboration with Lil Wayne, can repair. 1/4

Rap-Up’s Favorite Tracks: “I’m Dat Chick,” “Work It Man,” “Motivation,” “Feelin’ Me Right Now”

Lloyd aims for the crown with King of Hearts, his fourth album and first since 2008’s Lesson in Love, boasting a royal lineup including André 3000, R. Kelly, Chris Brown, Trey Songz, and Keri Hilson. The smooth operator and executive producer Polow Da Don craft a star-studded set featuring everything from the hilariously raunchy “Dedication to My Ex (Miss That)” to the politically-minded “World Cry.” Did he deliver a winning hand? Find out below.

USA Today: Producer Polow Da Don provides most of the tracks and injects them with infectious thump, but it’s Lloyd’s energetic but smooth deliveries that create a diverse set of keepers. 3/4

The New York Times: His finest moment remains Street Love, from 2007, one of the frothiest R&B albums in recent memory. In places King of Hearts approaches that album’s cool breeze. It’s produced largely by Polow Da Don, who clearly sees Lloyd as something of a muse. He’s feeling the full range of his lushness here, from the exuberant horns on “Cupid” and a pointedly romantic sax on “Naked” to the clustered, mournful guitars on “This Is 4 My Baby.”

Los Angeles Times: Janelle Monáe, Katy B, The-Dream, Frank Ocean and even Beyoncé have delivered recent efforts that transcend the trappings of modern soul. Lloyd Polite could stand to follow their example and be a little ruder. 2.5/4

The Washington Post: Lloyd holds his own against guest stars such as Chris Brown (on the messy electro-R&B track “Luv Me Girl”) but runs up against the brick wall of pathos and self-pity that is R. Kelly on “World Cry.” It’s slow and obvious (“I hate to see the whole world cry,” goes the chorus; would anyone actually like to see the whole world cry? Or even just some of it?), but purposeful, a future telethon ballad waiting for its disaster to happen.

The Village Voice: The album veers back and forth between unabashed romanticism (the joyously smitten “Cupid,” which follows “Dedication” on the album and very effectively wipes away all that song’s scorn), club-borne lust (“Bang!!!!,” which combines glitchy vocal effects, a mournful choral sample and an astonishing guest boast from the heretofore-unknown Salo), and the brooding, yet unleashed love songs that helped him initially break onto the scene (“Be the One”).

The Boston Globe: The 24-year-old vocalist has an ace up his sleeve in superstar producer Polow Da Don, but the combination can’t deliver a winning hand with this thin set. The problem for Lloyd (beyond his limited range) is weak material, as the songs often never rise above generic booty stomps (“Bang!!!!”) or insipid love songs (“Jigsaw”).

Rap-Up’s Favorite Tracks: “Dedication to My Ex (Miss That),” “Cupid,” “Be the One,” “Lay It Down”