The past two weeks have seen an incredible influx of new stuff, some of it’s been great, a lot has been good, and some of it has been tired as all get out.

Of course, everybody’s buzzing about the latest from Miss Jackson (soon to be Mrs. Dupri). The fluffy 20 Y.O. has been getting pretty solid reviews and received a big boost from Ms. Thang’s Oprah appearance. Folks are saying the set will outperform Beyonce’s B’Day and they might just be right. Look out for her at No. 1 on next week’s charts.

Also new today is Ludacris‘ 5th album Release Therapy featuring the so-so “Money Maker” featuring the so-so Pharrell. We love Luda but the jury’s still out on this one.

Last week saw the debut of Da Hiphop Raskalz, a group of Harlem grade school kids, ages 5-10, who rap about math, dinosaurs and other kid friendly subjects. The kids are actually part of a music class led by musician Dave Soldier and should be the answer to the hundreds of parents emailing us looking for rap for the kiddies.

Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor has been leaked so much last week’s release is basically a non-event. Which is a shame because it really is a decent album. What’s more unfortunate is the unrelated senseless violence disrupting his UK flow. Other decent rap/hip-hop releases come from Fergie (that’s right I said it’s only decent), Nicolay, Pete Rock (actually this one’s brilliant) and Pigeon John. Decent R&B/soul sets include stuff from Lionel Ritchie, Vikter Duplaix, Mojoe while excellence come from the always amazing Aaron Neville who pours his New Orleans heart out on Bring It On Home: The Soul Classics.

As for the tired stuff… well there isn’t that much, but you might want to watch out for the new CD from Chingy (yawn) and our reviewer, Michelle Cavanaugh, didn’t have many nice words for Flow Season from Main Flow and 7L.

Complete September R&B/Soul release list

Complete September Rap/Hip-hop release list