"I'm probably the only rapper in this world besides Nas that's really not scared to go at this dude's neck."

- The Game says he's ready for a "never-ending" battle with Jay-Z.

• The ATL's Young Jeezy drops his highly-anticipated third album, The Recession. "Previously criticized for strange rhymes and repeating lines, Jeezy delivers some great turns of phrase," commends Billboard.com. "Jeezy’s improvement as a lyricist is obvious. It’s almost hard to believe that there was a time when the highlights of his songs were his adlibs," gushes Vibe magazine, adding, "the Snowman has proven he won’t melt under the pressure of flashing lights."
• Beef-loving L.A. rapper The Game releases LAX, his follow-up to the platinum Doctor's Advocate. The Los Angeles Times thinks it misses the mark: "The Compton-raised rapper's conservative inclination to stick to the gangsta tropes of money, drugs and guns feels limiting at times, as does the album's bloated 1-hour-and-16-minute running time." URB magazine begs to differ: "Sure, it turns into some serious namedropping (almost always), but it’s also the reason why he’s three-for-three in the category of dope, dope records."
• After a five-year hiatus, veteran metalheads Metallica return with Death Magnetic, an album that is "the musical equivalent of Russia's invasion of Georgia — a sudden act of aggression from a sleeping giant," according to Rolling Stone. Music blog The Quietus says Death Magnetic "rinse[s] away the painful memories of watching Some Kind Of Monster, [which shows] Metallica as a bunch of whining, apron tied clowns with no social skills."
• Tween superstars Jonas Brothers release A Little Bit Longer. Entertainment Weekly gives it a "B+" and congratulates: "Assuming each generation gets the teen idols it deserves, then today's kids must have done something good — God knows what — to have merited the Jonas Brothers." Blender gives the trio 4 out of 5 stars for its feel-good pop-rock: "Becoming a teenager is confusing and scary. The Jonases offer a friendly road map."
• Solange Knowles attempts to shake the "Beyoncé's little sister" tag with Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams, "a peppy album, rich with thumping horns, crisp percussion and light piano melodies." Despite a whiff of praise, The New York Times concludes "Solange can’t quite keep up." Allmusic disagrees, calling it "one of the year's more entertaining and easily enjoyable R&B releases," because it's "fronted by … someone who is slightly more concerned with raw emotion and clowning around than technical prowess and polished product."