A few months ago, Kanye West tweeted that Lloyd Banks is "prolly the most underrated MC in the game." Banks, best known as 50 Cent's sideman, is an un-showy virtuoso, rapping in a gruff, sleepy-eyed near-monotone that obscures his wit and rhythmic gifts. His thundering street hit, "Beamer, Benz, or Bentley" is a cascade of tightly interlocking, goofily evocative rhymes: "Where my ring and my confetti?/I'm Kobe Bryant ready/ Pink rosé and chronic smelly/While I'm stumbling out the telly." His third solo album is uneven and overlong, but, thanks in part to a rappers'-rappers guest list (Pusha T, Raekwon, Eminem, Fabolous) and several dank, hard-hitting beats, it has moments of rhyme-geek bliss.

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“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."