Mike Posner and Big Sean

Two names for the future: Big Sean and Mike Posner.

Mike Posner: A newcomer who is still a University student over in the US, but is making some moves to get his name known. He has features on the awesome Big Sean mixtape, Finally Famous (Links are below) and on tracks from Big Sean's upcoming album of the same title, namely 'Who Knows', on which he drops a smooth, likable hook.

Posner seamlessly glides across a multitude of genres, from R'n'B, Indie, Hip-Hop and Pop all at once, giving you a style of music that will definitely convince you that he has a sound that is uniquely his.

The mixtape 'A Matter of Time' (released last week) has a nice weighting between original material and covers/remixes. It's probably not even fair to call them covers or remixes, as he takes popular songs such as Beyoncé's 'Halo' and The Fray 'Over My Head' and weaves them into his own distinct sound.

I'll let you make your own judgements on him, but he's got a style that will appeal to a range of tastes, and is definitely a name to look out for. The link below is a free iTunes download of his mixtape, and should automatically take you to the iTunes store link. A full review to come in the near future.

Big Sean: The easiest way to describe Big Sean is Kid Cudi before Kid Cudi was Kid Cudi. Complicated? Exactly.

Big Sean, who is signed to Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music label, dropped Finally Famous back in 2007 and unfortunately hasn't put anything else out since. There's talk of an upcoming mixtape, 'UKNOWBIGSEAN', but with no definite release date as of yet.

Sean has a versatility and flow about him that compliments his decent lyrical ability and charisma on any given track. Sean exudes confidence on the mixtape, and shows more than a hint of potential.

The mixtape is predominantly original material, most of which comes with an uptempo flow and positive vibe. Big Sean definitely has the potential to be a big name, but the lack of any substantial follow-up material to this mixtape is definitely moving him out of the ears and eyes of any prospective audiences.

Tracks such as 'People Mover', 'We Known' and 'Dreams' show that Big Sean has a style that, much like Posner, will allow him to appeal to a multitude of tastes. Keep an eye out for the track 'Who Knows' featuring Mike Posner, which is not on this mixtape, but possibly on both the upcoming mixtape UKNOWBIGSEAN, and his debut album.

To download Mike Posner and The Brain Trust's 'A Matter of Time' via iTunes, go here: http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/new.duke.edu.1926121494

To download Big Sean's 'Finally Famous', head over to http://www.uknowbigsean.com/ which has a link to download a free copy of the Finally Famous mixtape.

A Mixtape Special

The mixtape. To a new listener of any given artists, it's never easy to tell when it's official, or whether it's just a bootleg that some DJ has put together.

(It's obvious, but the one key difference is quality. You know it's official when the mixtape has less of those irritating DJ shout-outs all over the tracks.)

Onto the content: Beginning with the classic mixtape tracks using other people's instrumentals. Listening to someone rap/sing over a beat that someone else released never fails to hook a listener, not least to see how they can do on a (usually) popular beat and how they fare against the original.

It offers a perfect chance for an artist to show how versatile they are and how creative they can be with someone else's beat. A fair proportion of mixtape rappers can suffer from an arrogance that they are better than mainstream guys, and for some this proves to be a way to show that they really mean it.

Of course, there is also the meat of the mixtapes, that being the original tracks. Normally, this is a proving ground for all aspiring artists using the medium of mixtape to reach audiences, and rarely will a rapper be accepted or lauded without having a solid mixtape fanbase. Although the tracks/freestyles they do over other people's beats are important, the existence of good original material is obviously the crucial step between mixtape rapper and radio play. The ability to stamp your own identity on a song is only ever going to have a total impact if the song is your own. The list of rappers to have come to the fore having built a solid mixtape fanbase is endless.

For this reason, I've been getting involved the mixtape arena for the last 8/9 months, and find myself anticipating certain mixtapes as much as albums. Not least because 95% of the time, they are legally free to download.

Therefore, from now on, I'll be posting my favourite mixtapes of recent weeks, and will post links to download them, providing they are already made available for free. These may not necessarily be new mixtapes, and could be old ones that either I hadn't heard before or simply chose to revisit.

Mixtape of the Week:

Drake-So Far Gone: http://octobersveryown.blogspot.com/2009/02/drake-so-far-gone.html

Drake is a rapper who has been heralded as the new 'Fresh Prince'. The comparison stems mainly from the fact that he has made his name on television, and is trying his hand at rapping.

That's probably where the similarity ends-Drake has a style that encompasses a wide range of other styles, from Lil' Wayne to Kid Cudi. In honesty, I feel he lies somewhere between the two.

Download the latest (and greatest IMO) mixtape from Drake at his blog (link above) and see how you feel about his potential-I expect him to do really well for himself, and haven't enjoyed a mixtape this much since A Kid Named Cudi. Expect to hear more of Drake.