This wasn’t Pusha T and Malice’s first go with the Neptunes — 1999 debut Exclusive Audio Footage sat around in Elektra’s junk drawer after debut single “The Funeral” stiffed — but they could have hardly hoped for a better introduction to the world than this. The Thornton brothers pierced through the all-glamour opulence of pop-rap’s gilded age with something colder, meaner, and more lyrical than the era’s big crossover stars; even peak Jay-Z was less an apropos precedent for their calculating, bleak-punchline coke raps than Raekwon and Mobb Deep. But the catch — much to Lord Willin’s benefit — is that their hardcore-head lyrics are bolstered by some of the most joyously hook-riddled productions of the Neptunes’ peak era. “Grindin’” is an eternal beat, thanks to Chad and Pharrell deciding to forego their percussive minimalism for a suicide-door-slamming density that C4 couldn’t penetrate. But it’s hardly alone: the sax-riffing I learned it by watching you coke-heir origin story “Young Boy,” the kingpin royal-court triumphalism of “Cot Damn,” and top-tier Obligatory Club Track “When the Last Time” (replete with a synth hook that sounds like an impossibly catchy Nokia ringtone) would be any other debut album’s clear high points.