Favorite Song: "Excuse Me"

Rocky floats through most of the extended trip that is A.L.L.A. with eyes half open. So when he snaps to attention, like on "Excuse Me," "Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2," "Max B," and "Everyday," that's when you listen up. You're welcome to fade back out though when things get murky like on "West Side Highway," or when he takes the cleverness of the sublime "L$D" and gets all literal and drug preacher with it on "Pharsyde": "It's the irony how LSD inspired me to reach the higher me." Rocky celebrates the drugs that led him to this album just the right amount in the psychedelia that envelopes A.L.L.A; it's cooler when you don't spell it out like that. Underneath the dreamy production from Danger Mouse, Rocky, Yams, Emile Haynie, Mark Ronson, Juicy J, and others, death, love, and self-discovery are the central themes. There are mentions of gentrification and police brutality, but Rocky does little more than tap them before disappearing back into the haze. And that's the purpose that A.L.L.A. serves: It's an album of escapism, like the other side of the trap door.