Friday, November 19, 2010

He's Baaaack


The first signs of B.o.B's next mixtape have come to light. He recently released the video for the song Beast Mode that is set to be on his No Genre mixtape, which will be released December 7th. I hate to say it, but I may be more excited for this than I was for the album. Don't get me wrong - the album was dope. I even purchased it, but there is a certain freedom Bobby Ray is granted on mixtapes versus albums that he has always utilized to his fullest potential.





Thursday, November 18, 2010

Lemme Hold Dat Beat


There is a trend in the industry to release freestyles for the fans for free through the internet. I think this could be one of the smartest movements in the music industry. You need to understand that listeners are downloading the majority of their music online for free. So why not satisfy them, keep them interested, and release some music for free.

Trey Songz is one of the newest artists to do this. On a track with Fabolous, he goes in over Right Above It. While this song is decent, nothing beats him going over Gucci's Lemonade a few months ago. Here's a taste of the best songs off his #LemmeHoldDatBeat tape.



And the mixtape: #LemmeHoldDatBeat



Jay Squared


Who would have thought that one of the most recognized of recent underground rappers and one of the most recognized hip-hop artists of all time would mesh so well together. Despite Diddy's best efforts to get Jay Electronica to his side over the past year or so, Jay-Z swooned the artist into recently signing with Roc Nation.

From this epic signing comes the duo's first product, Shiny Suit Theory. This song is just a great four minutes of hip-hop, blending the styles of two of the most talented people in the game. It also features the musical stylings of The-Dream and Charlotte Gainsbourg. This blend of raw underground skill and an established commercial medium has a lot of potential for the future.




All Day


Girl Talk has just come out with his new album, All Day, the fifth album from this widely known mash-up artist. The album is a seamless play of 372 overlapping samples that did not disappoint. While the energy of the tape is consistent throughout, the variety of samples does well to keep your attention.

The best part about this album is that it came out of nowhere, but it seems that he has been working on it since his last album. Even with no previous news of this new Girl Talk project or rumors of it's release, the internet went nuts upon it's release.

Girl Talk told MTV:
The big feature of this album is giving samples a little bit more breathing room. There are segments on the new record that are extremely detailed and cut-up and, you know, 10 samples will go by in 10 seconds, but I feel there's less of a focus on that compared to previous albums. I'm really interested in the rate of change but sticking with the same source material for a bit longer. It's a little bit more patient, mostly because I've spent just about every day working on it, editing it, going over each segment. It's been a full-time commitment.
You can take full advantage of this capitalization of copyright and sampling laws below.



Monday, November 15, 2010

Music On The Highest High


The duo U-N-I out of LA just released a video to one of the tracks off their album, A Love Supreme 2.0. The track was featured on their previous release, A Love Supreme, and the rest is the album is equally as dope. If you haven't heard anything from these west coast rappers, take a listen to the album, which features the likes of Bun B, Miguel, and Fashawn.

Download Windows

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Devil In A Red Dress


If you have heard Kanye's Devil In A Red Dress already, you can expect a final album version with some fresh verses. Until then you may appreciate the freestyles utilizing this awesome track. J. Cole and Joell Ortiz are two very different rappers, but they are both very talented lyricists and give the track their own individual feel.


Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Cudder Is Back


Got myself a copy of Man On The Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager. My initial reactions have been very positive, with my immediate standout track being Ashin' Kusher. I know this is going to be in rotation for a while it's great lyrics from Scotty over a sick beat. While I would love to share tracks from Cudi's sophomore studio album, I know they would immediately be removed by the RIAA.

Whether you support the artist or save yourself some money, get your hands on a copy. Until then, you can enjoy this dope Cudi freestyle. He goes in off the dome for an On Da Spot freestyle and has fun with it, which are both something you don't see a lot these days with "freestyles."

Runaway

If you haven't checked out Kanye West's Runaway video, you might want to. This 35 minute long video features the track for which it is named, but it does not stop there. The video plays through the story of Kanye and his run-in with a fallen Phoenix and successfully utilizes other tracks from his upcoming album My Dark Twisted Fantasy to tell the story.

The video is entertaining to say the least and gives a great preview of what we are in store for come November 22nd, when Kanye releases his fifth studio album. From the tracks I have heard so far, the production is insane.

Singing The Blues


You may know the name Bruno Mars from this summer's radio hit by B.o.B, Nothing On You. This young singer broke onto the scene through a popular feature, but his recognition is not undeserved. He recently released an album Doo-Wops & Hooligans, and while I've heard several songs that I enjoyed, nothing stood out to me like Liquor Store Blues.

This track was one of the digital singles released to promote the album and featured Damian Marley. They could not go wrong with this collaboration.


Black & Yellow


Hasn't even been half a day since my last post on Wiz, but I can't go without sharing a Rick Ross remix of the song which I figure is unofficial and well as a few decent freestyles over the track.

It seems like plenty of people have been flowing over this, but the only ones that remain in my playlists are from Wale and Donnis, both going at the beat very differently.





I Wanna Know Your Name


This song could be in the running for my favorite song of the year. Pharrell linked up with Swedish House Mafia to create some pure fire on the house groups first single, One. This track takes it to another level. The house offerings of SHM alongside Pharrell's crooning fits together flawlessly in an almost mesmerizing way.


I wanna know your name... or, better yet, stand there and just do that.

Young Guns

"Ironic you've been sleeping on the one that you've been dreaming 'bout."

The issue I sometimes have with posse cuts is that because of the star power the track has, artists tend not to go off as if they would on their own track or a track they are on with just one other artist. No matter the length and importance of your feature, artists need to understand that these tracks are showcases.

I definitely enjoyed the newest installment of G.O.O.D. Fridays. The track is called "Looking For Trouble" and has a line-up of Kanye, Pusha, Cyhi, Big Sean, and J. Cole. What first caught my interest on the track was the Cole feature. He is set to release his latest mixtape soon, but I'm glad he took the time to get into Kanye's weekly music movement.

Both J. Cole and Big Sean went off on this track. Not to take away from any one else's performance but there is a clear difference in these artists energy levels. You can see for yourself below.


“I don’t know what it is [when it comes to features]. What it comes from is fear, that’s why I go so hard [on guest spots]. I’m a real competitor. It’s just a fear of somebody besting me and dominating me with a better verse. Not every song is like that, but on a song like ‘Looking For Trouble’ it is. It’s that spirit of hip-hop: Let’s see who can come the best. I don’t know if I’m going to have the best verse, but I know ain’t nobody just gonna kill me.”
-J. Cole

Not Just A Fluke


I try not to love or on certain artists because of affiliations or common enemies, but the G-Unit situation has always been interesting to me. I was definitely into 50 when he was doing it big, I still regularly listen to The Game and Young Buck who I think are both talented artists, but with Lloyd Banks, I figured my interest had died with my last memory being The Cake off Rotten Apple.

With the resurgence of his popularity this summer with the joint Beamer, Benz, or Bentley, I figured it was just a small shot at something of a comeback - like 50 Cent has been trying to do for a while now. I may have been wrong, though. Since then, I have been hearing a couple real nice tracks that he put together, including a feature on a G.O.O.D. Friday track. You can be the judge for yourself with these tracks.


Celebrity (ft. Akon, Eminem)

Start It Up Remix (ft. Kanye, Swizz, Ryan Leslie, and Fab)

Free Wiz


It was bound to happen, but Wiz was busted in North Carolina for possession. I couldn't pass up any opportunity to blog about Wiz, but you can check the full story here.

In honor of Wizzle Man getting locked up, I wanted to share a track I recently discovered on an unofficial Wiz mixtape. The track is a mash-up of a couple Notorious B.I.G. verses over Kanye's say you will, with Wiz doing his best "Biggie flow." You can also check out another pretty cool mash-up with Wiz and Biggie here.