I actually thought L.A.X wasn't that bad. It wasn't better than the other two albums but it was still solid. I still throw on Dope boyz when im lifting weights.
But N.E ways if people would just separate the beefs and the name drops from the overall quality of his cataloge he's actually a very consistant rap artist. He has some hood shit to his shit but also got some slept on wordplay which i think is a good combo for a rapper. I seen alotta threads where people pay more attention to the extra bullshit instead of the rap stats. The first album had bangers westside story, put u on to game, higher and is a classic to me. The second one was a 4 or a 4 1/2 mic joint. And now this R.E.D album sounds like flames and that mixtape he put out had hot shit on it too. I agree with Rapmastermind about how hungry he sounds. I think if he was from the Eastcoast people wouldn't just front on him like he's barely relevant and the name drops wouldn't bother niggaz as much.