J. Cole - “Power Trip” feat. Miguel: I really like J. Cole as an MC although I was moderately disappointed by Cole World. That said, I LOVE J. Cole as a producer. This kid is talented beyond belief. When he’s rapping on tracks he produced himself well, enough said. This is probably one of his best tracks to date as he himself proclaimed.
Azealiah Banks meets A$AP Rocky. Digging this girls’ sound.
TAHOE 2011/2012. Boom goes the dynamite
—Guess Whos Bizzack
Fabolous feat. Broadway - “Guess Whos Bizzack:” One of my favorite Kanye West beats slowed down a bit with some dope new verses from Fab and Broadway. #repeat
Aaliyah - “Enough Said” feat. Drake - I don’t even need to stress the importance of this one. Aaliyah & Drake. A posthumous release? Word on the street is that Drake is executive producing it. This leaked on Drake’s blog last night. Rumors could be true. WOW. Diggin’ It.
—Golden Girl (Feat. Tyler, the Creator)(Bonus Track)
Frank Ocean - “Golden Girl feat. Tyler, The Creator:” Oh man. I went out and picked up a hard copy of Frank Ocean’s channel Orange last night in addition to the digital copy I bought. AND juuuuust when I thought this album couldn’t get any better, I stumbled across this bonus track, which kicks in about a minute after the original End to the album. It might be a littler early to be making these sorts of declarations but I’m going to go ahead and confidently say that channel Orange is probably one of my favorite of albums of all time. Yes, I SAID IT. Congratulations, Frank.
City by The Bay - Took these gems out my window the other night.
Nas - “Cherry Wine” feat. Amy Winehouse: Well it’s been about two weeks since I listened to anything else other than Frank Ocean’s channel Orange. And the album that I happened to pick up was Nas’ Life is Good and I’m glad it was that one. The album is vintage Nas getting back to his story-telling roots with incredible production from No I.D. and Salaam featuring samples of some hip-hop classics. The album is vintage from top to bottom. Welcome back Nas. There’s on track that better exemplifies this than “Cherry Wine.” You have vintage Nas featuring vintage Amy on a vintage sounding album. They knocked it out of the park with this one. This is just a snippet but you get the point.
—Black Faces (ft. Nipsey Hussle) {prod. Boi-1da}
Childish Gambino - “Black Faces feat. Nipsey Hussle:” Now this is more like it. Welcome back, Childish. After an unusually weak performance (in my humble opinion) on CAMP, Childish is back and making a statement on Royalty. With beats manufactured by some big-time hip-hop producers and features from some of the heaviest hitters in the game, past present, and future, Royalty, seems to be a clear declaration by Childish: “I’m taking this rap sh*t seriously.” Top to bottom, love this album. With a more traditional hip-hop sound and a bit of a departure from his usual content heavily centered on a preoccupation with attention from girls (or the lack thereof) and being made fun of, Childish nails it. The clever one-liners that have come to define Childish are abundant and the skit from Tina Fey to wrap up the album is priceless and reminds us that while he’s moving on to the next phase of the career, Donald Glover the comedian still lives.
Props to Frank Ocean.
(Source: frankocean)
—Her Favorite Song ft. Raja (prod. by The Awesome Sound)
XV - “Her Favorite Song” feat. Raja: Loving the new XV album so much I had to post my second XV track in three days. I’ll say it again, if this dude is giving these tracks away for free, I can only imagine what the stuff we actually have to pay for will sound like. This one is a bit mellow to help cool it out heading into the weekend. TGIF.
Ava Pearl - “Trapstar” feat. Mad Maxxx: Oh boy! And the journey continues with the new single from my family Ava Pearl title “Trapstar” with a feature from Mad Maxxx and produced by J-Classic. This track is big sound with big vocals from Ava. The talent is evident. Give it a listen and show some support by picking up the track on iTunes. This girl has some big ideas and is making it happen. I’m pretty sure I saw Rihanna posting pictures on Instagram the other day rocking a “Trapstar” brim and t-shirt the other day. BUSTED. Get your own swag, Rihanna! Just kidding, we love you RiRi. Seriously though, back up :-P #Justsaying.
Lana Del Rey - “National Anthem” starring A$AP Rocky: Thought provoking song and video from Lana Del Rey and A$AP. Some interesting feedback from MTV here: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1688535/lana-del-ray-asap-rocky-national-anthem-video.jhtml
—Be There, Be Square (prod. by Xaphoon Jones)
XV - “Be There, Be Square”: Remember yesterday when I said Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange, might be my most anticipated album of 2012? Yeah, well, that’s before I discovered the latest installment from XV titled Popular Culture. The last two “mixtapes” from my man XV sure haven’t felt like your traditional mixtape. In fact, Zero Heroes and now Popular Culture are so well thought out, executed so perfectly, and have such high quality production, mixing, and mastering that I’m surprised my man put both out for free. These easily could be multi-platinum albums. That leaves only one logical conclusion: XV is cleary only scratching the surface even after 12 some odd mixtapes. Let’s not forget that Popular Culture arrives after XV signed with Warner Brothers music. Alex Gale over at BET illuminated this idea nicely:
“ Culture’s self-explanatory concept helps the project cohere beautifully, from the hilarious cover art to songs like “Wonkavator” and “Breaking Bad,” which turn unlikely samples from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the hit AMC show of the same name into bouncy standouts. That Warner Bros., who signed XV in 2010, allowed him to release songs like “Her Favorite Song” and “Be There, Be Square” au gratis hopefully speaks to the rapper’s potential for even bigger and better things — with their melodic, anthemic (albeit borderline corny) hooks and stadium-size, pop-rap production (courtesy of the Awesome Sound, Xaphoon Jones, TNHGT, D. Good and Odd Couple), they belong on radio playlists somewhere between Wiz Khalifa and Graduation-era Kanye West.”
Props, XV. Excited to see what else is in store.
Frank Ocean - “Pyramids:” OH. BOY. Lead track off of the impending debut album from Frank, Channel Orange. My goodness. I don’t think I’ve eagerly anticipated an album release as much as this since Watch the Throne dropped back in August 2011. My goodness. I’m giddy.
